The Change of Serenity
by StatetWolf
Summary: A New Adventure in the making, a tale unlike any other. A story of dragons, Sorcery, Time travel, and the truth behind what really happened during the Silver Millennium. Along with guest appearances, and unique twists and turns unlike any before it.
1. Chapter 00: Prologue

_**Prologue**_

It was the beginnings to yet another late night as a woman, who appeared to be no more than in her mid-to-late twenties carried a small, dusky red-haired, little girl into a bedroom that was decorated with soft pinks and dark blues throughout. In one corner lay a veritable mountain of dolls and stuffed animals while only one had seemed to be left unaccounted for, as it was held closely to the sleepy little girl as her arms were wrapped loosely around the woman's neck as her finger's lay intertwined within her long silvery-white mane of hair.

Gently rubbing the little girls back, the woman cannot help but gaze lovingly upon her little girl as she tenderly lowers the slumbering child into the awaiting comforts of her bed. A rag-doll now held securely as a soft smile appears upon the child's face as she slips further into sleeps comforting embrace. The woman sighs as she gazes upon daughter, her arms now folded under her bosom enjoying the feel as a pair of masculine arms wrap around her waist, as a loving smile blossoms upon her face. "We are truly blessed, aren't we dear?" "Sigh, Yeah we are aren't we; a loving marriage, a beautiful daughter and our hands in the Intergalactic Politics."

"Okay, now I know something is wrong… what is it?" "It's tomorrow; tomorrow is the anniversary of when _it_ happened!" "Ah! Yes I remember it's also the day where we promised each-other that we would tell her the truth… isn't it?" "Yes." _'As much as I don't want to, the knowledge has to be passed down… least we forget!'_ "Enough of this," the man stated effectively breaking his wife out of her thoughts "why don't we retire to our chambers where I can _remind_ you just how much I love you." Lifting her left hand and gently laying it upon his face, she turns her head to gaze into his stormy blue-gray eyes. "Mmmm," she moaned as she kissed him deeply, "I can't wait my love."

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_The Following Morning…_ The sounds of breakfast being made can be heard from within a modest little kitchen when a man, appearing to be in his early thirties, leaned against the doorway. "_**Yawn**_, morning dear." He greeted while still rubbing a bit of sleep from his eye "Morning sweetheart, sleep well?" "After last night's fun… you better believe it. So any word on when the others are going to be arriving?" "They should be arriving sometime after lunch, still… I find it hard to believe after all this time _Project Genesis_ was still operational! Though I am glad, they were able to restore things back to the way they were before _the fall_. Bell Sweetheart, breakfast is ready!"

A couple minutes pass before an eight-year-old little girl, with dusky red hair, comes bouncing into the kitchen wearing a light blue floral dress and a smile that seems to light up the room. "Morning Momma," Bell giggled "don't I look pretty today?" "You sure do hon, my little princess." Even though the last three words had been uttered no louder than a gentle spring breeze, their effect was painfully clear on the little girls face as she collapsed to the floor in tears. Her father was at her side trying to console his little girl, while the mother had slumped against the counter-top trying to remember what she had just said to hurt her little girl so much.

It wasn't until she had just barely heard her husband ask Bell what was wrong, when she heard the answer through her daughter's sobs. "She… _sob… _c-called m-me… _sob…_ P-p-p-princess, Wha-ha-ha-ha." It was then that the mother realized what she had done and in a rare moment for her she fainted while her last thought was _'Oh my!'_

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Floating within an endless blue ocean the woman's eyes slowly open only to widen in shock as she caught sight of a young woman that she had not seen since she herself was sixteen-years-old. "Oh my gah…" _Giggle_ "Oh girl, you are so funny, especially with the look of absolute shock you have written all over face. But seriously, for someone so smart you sure are really _stupid_, I mean really breaking your promise like that to your own daughter. Huh, just what were you thinking, really? Course I know I wasn't the most intelligent person when I was alive; oh yes I wore my emotions on the sleeve of my blouse but at least I managed to keep my promises."

"Wh… what are you talking about?" "_**Snort**_, and they used to call _me_ a meatball head. What I'm saying dear girl is that you just broke the cardinal rule of your own family, by calling poor Bell a princess when the occasion did not clearly demand it. Or do you not remember the agreement that you, your husband and your daughter agreed to that states… and I quote: _From this time henceforth do we promise to one another, that any and all references pertaining to that of Royalty shall not be mentioned within each other's presence outside that of social and pubic events. If these conditions are not met then the offending party shall thus be subjected to forty-eight hours of non-stop torture by marathon of Barney!"_

Giving a violent shudder, the young woman looked upon her old-time and all she could do was shake her head sadly. "_**Sigh**_, I don't see why you keep doing this to yourself; I mean this will be what your… _**eighth**_ time being subjected to this? Oh Kami, no wonder your IQ took such a dump! You're just lucky to have a friend such as I you know that, well first thing I'm gonna do is repair the damage that you've done to yourself. Honestly an IQ of three-hundred plus and by the end of this next forty-eight hours you'll be nothing more than a blathering idiot!"

After stretching out her arms the young woman, with her hair done up in duel ponytails, placed the tips of her fingers upon the woman's temples and proceeded to glow an ethereal pale white. Inside the woman's mind a practical deluge was occurring as places, family, battles once fought, friends gained and friends lost. Hard won Knowledge, centuries of information gained thru experience. In all a massive collection of knowledge, memories and long forgotten powers were returned to her. Easily blowing her IQ past its old limits of three-hundred to a staggering IQ of four-hundred and eighty. Pulling her hands away the young woman looked then at the woman before her, giving a humph she promptly booted the woman back into the waking world.

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'_Ugh… what in the Aristocracies name happened to me? Ugh, well whatever it was… that is the last time I will ever go out drinking while attempting to explain as to why the cellular breakdown of a corporeal being, while trapped in cryo-sleep is a very, very bad thing. Not to mention being imprudent enough to actually volunteer one's self to test the process out without making sure the calculations were adequately in order. Furthermore why is that child crying… Oh, crap! That's no ordinary child, that's Bell and now that I'm philosophically reasoning matters clearly once again I'd best do something quick or I'm likely to end up in that insufferable torture room again being forced to watch that purple lizard talk about such lies and sugar coated make believe wonderlands. Well let us see if I can prevent that detestable unpleasantness!'_

"Bell sweetheart, I said no such thing. You austerely misinterpreted what I had merely uttered; I did not bequeath unto thee a title of royalty, a title of which you were proudly born into. To which, I merely stated a term of affection, to which I will now reiterate a bit louder now so that you may properly hear what it was that was said: _My Little Precious One._" The little girl slowly raised her head up from her father's chest and turned to look at her mother, unbeknownst to her but completely ensconced to the mother's irritation was the look of utter shock etched into his face. As though the great _Thinker_ had finally realized something, so vast to which it startled him to no end.

"Do you really mean it mother?" Bell asked, hoping for all the known worlds that it was true. "Of course I do, my treasured one, I would not now nor ever purposely intend to do you any harm! Come now breakfast is ready and we have much to converse well before lunch today. I have prepared an ancient traditional Japanese meal of Steamed Rice, Miso Soup, Natto and some Nori. Itadakimasu!" And so it went, the mother, father and daughter all sat together at the kitchen table and enjoyed their meals. After breakfast was done and the dishes were washed and dried, the small family all adjourned to the sitting room with a cup of Green Tea.

For nearly fifteen minutes, an uncomfortable silence hung in the air until it was broken by the gentle sigh of Bell's mother. Bell quietly noticed that her mother had been acting rather strangely since breakfast; her speech, mannerisms, even the way she moved all seemed so much more regal than they had mere moments before she allowed herself to breakdown into tears. But now, as she looked upon her mother she could not help but see the change in her eyes, that spoke of untold truth's and a pain far older than one should ever know.

Seeing that her daughter was close to boiling over in need of answers, the mother placed her tea down on the marble coffee table and began to speak. "Bell, for the last eight years you have known me under the titles of both mother and that of Queen Serenity. However, Serenity is simply that… a title nothing more. My name was for a long time Ami Mizuno and before that it was Amalia Hisakawa the Princess of Mercury, now what I have to tell you is tremendously imperative for it is the story of my life! Do you understand Bell?" Bell could only gulp and nod her head at the severity of her mother's tone.

Seeing her daughter understand Ami allowed a slight smile to play across her lips before she continued. "It has been said that the past was once built on legends and that legends are often a way of understanding things that are greater than ourselves. Forces that shape our lives and events that blatantly defy explanation. Individuals whose lives can either soar to the heavens or fall to the deepest pits of hell; this is how the legends of the Silver Senshi are born. And it all started close to eleven thousand years ago…"


	2. Chapter 01: Prelude to the Fall

**Chapter #01: **_Prelude to the Fall_

It happened a long time ago really, longer now that I stop to think about it. Nobody thought it would really happen… why would they when the mere thought of what happened that day had never before touched the hearts of man. Mankind was not always limited to travel in the ways it is now, back then man… no… not man… human, yes, human kind… they were not as arrogant as they had become in recent years. Back then they lived _amongst_ the stars, sigh, they lived, they loved, they laughed and cried… they were able to pull strength from one another and were able to forge new roads the likes of which could only bring a sense of awe of wonder to those around them.

In essence it was in fact that they simply _lived_ that they were never able to see it coming. Because, like the old saying goes… _"All__ good__ things__ must __come __to __an __end."_ And end it did, for you see a war was being waged by three different groups. We never knew about them, why would we, when we never knew they existed in the first place. We were just a small nothing little system, tucked away and hidden within the folds of the spiral arm of our galaxy… and yet they still found us. They were so entrenched with their fighting… their war that they never realized amount of lives that were being lost around them.

We later came to find out that the three opposing sides were called the Celestials, the Devine and the Infernals. At first the Devine and the Infernals were fighting side by side against the Celestials, for the one did not agree with what the other two were doing. What the other two were doing we have no idea and yet in the end it never really mattered. For you see it was once their war had reached our system that the leader of the Celestials had spotted a young girl who had just lost her father, Hyperion and her mother, Theia as she was seen kneeling over them crying… that he finally realized just too dang late that all of their fighting and bickering was complete and utter foolishness.

He saw that all around him, his friends and loved ones were gone and that he was the only one left, and if he didn't do something to end the senseless loss of life at that vary moment then the vary thing he valued above all else would be lost to the flows of eternity itself. So in a move that was so reckless and crazy that it shocked both the Devine and the Infernals to a standstill, that man poured the vary essence of his life, his love for all things and his vary soul itself into forcing the two sides to cease their warring ways. Sadly it worked all to well, for it was on that day that the last of the Celestials had ended his own life by preventing the others pleasure of taking it from him.

However, before he died… he gave a message to the young girl, _"Live__ and __be __at __peace, __know__ the__ serenity __that __is __in __you __will __be __needed __to __help __guide __others __in __order __to __repair __that __which __has __been __lost __this __day."_ And he gave unto her a crystal and told her to keep it with her always and to know that in the end love would always win over the coming darkness. After that his body became translucent and broke away into a great expanse of little motes of light that just seemed to…_fade__ away_. That little girl quickly went on to become Selene of the house of Serenity, the first Queen to the Moon. The royal line continued for many generations, the damage was repaired and life continued on.

Over time an event would occur so great that the one young woman it happened to was proclaimed royalty by those around her, this event was to be the planets will asserting itself by creating its personal guardian. It was during the reign of Izanami of the house of Serenity, the ninth Queen of the Moon that two events occurred that caused a great many to feel fear.

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_**Knock, Knock!**_ One of the palace staff opened the door interrupting Queen Amalia during her tale of family history. "Pardon the intrusion Your Grace." The man begged, "But the Duchess of Saturn has just arrived." Giving a slight nod, Amalia acknowledged the man; "Thank you Armand, please show her in." Giving a slight bow, Armand replied, "At once your highness." As soon as Armand had left Hotaru had stepped in, with a brief pause her clothing shifted from an elegant purple gown to a more modest of clothes.

Taking a moment to once again adjust from going to barefoot from high heels, and a cumbersome gown to a pair of black bikini jeans and a burgundy colored tank top reading; _"Terror - Life and Death!"_ in dark purple lettering while outlined in black. "Hey Ames, what's shaken girl?" A little taken aback at the sight of her friend, whom now happened to be a rather tall statuesque violet haired beauty that could not only give ancient Egypt's Cleopatra a run for her money but also slap her silly and dare to call her ugly. In other words, she took the form she had with Mistress 9 and had seriously up the anti till she was now registered as a full blown, drop-dead, gorgeous _BABE!_

Quickly shaking off her shock Amalia replied, "Not quite as much as what's shaking under that top you're wearing 'Taru. By Archimedes mirror girl! I know it's been a while since we last saw each other, but either puberty finally decided to quit screwing around and pay you a visit or you managed to find the greatest magic known to all of woman kind!" Plopping herself down on the Lay-Z-Boy Hotaru sighed as she relaxed, "I would have to say it's the former of the two, the later was just too complex and gross to even think about trying to make much sense out how the politicians of the 21st century even relate to Beavis and Butt-head of the 20th century."

"_Anyway…_" Amalia ventured in a desperate attempt to get as far away from the topic of morons in power and their A+S(squared) x 1 hole = a point in time an everyone was socially dead from the neck up… "I was just about to start on your families section of history before the whole _'__fall of an Empire'_ event took place. And I have to say even remembering most of what my _five times_ Great -Grandmother Pleione of Mercury had to say about the event in her diary, still impresses me." _**"MOM!"**_ Bell whined, "Would you please get beck to the story already?" "All right, all right little one, now where was I…"

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The first was the ascension of Ops of the house of Saturn, and the other was the return of the Devine. For with the Devine came one of their own as a prisoner, a grotesque mockery of life itself, a fusion of the Devine and the Infernals into a being calling itself _Amatsu-Mikaboshi__ the __Demon-god_. And because of this being arriving on the day of Ops ascension that the people, her own friends and family came to fear her, they feared her enough to proclaim her as a harbinger of death and the Messiah of Silence. For on the day of her ascension not a single sound was heard throughout the Sol Kingdom.

The years passed as they often do, the new Princess of Saturn was abandoned by her people and ultimately forgotten about. Nobody knew of her other than the lies that parents told their children as bedtime stories at night, about the demoness of Saturn who fed upon those foolish enough to step foot upon her home.

In truth it was those vary same fools who ventured to planet of Saturn in hopes of a glorious battle, to which a young man looking to make a name for himself could return telling stories of his battle against such a fearsome and silent foe, to which they never returned after meeting the planets guardian and end up siring a new heir to be the planets guardian. It was during the reign of the twentieth Queen of the Moon that one Arianrhod of house of Serenity had taken it upon herself to journey to the planet known to many as _The Planet of No Return_; while to others it was still known Saturn, the Planet of Silence.

Upon arrival alongside her royal guard and other planetary guardians, Queen Arianrhod witnessed something that truly boggled her mind… Children! Children of various ages anywhere from five to fifteen years of age, and at the center of them all watching on proudly was the former Empress of Saturn Lady Nekhbet. Upon seeing the newly arrived travelers, Lady Nekhbet called out; "Greetings strangers, I bid thee welcome unto Saturn, prithee, who be ye and from where dost ye hail from?"

Arianrhod nodded at this and replied; "I am Queen Arianrhod of house Serenity, and I dost hail from the moors of Terra's Moon. Dost thou know whither I might find ye guardian?" "I am Lady Nekhbet, Come hither and I shall see thee to mine sisters daughter Persephone." The children fled back to there homes to tell their parents of the days goings on, while Lady Nekhbet escorted Queen Arianrhod to were the planets mana flows tended to converge whenever the guardian was active. "Ah," Lady Nekhbet started, "we art in for a treat as it would seem that Persephone is in the midst of combat training."

And indeed she was, for in air was the Guardian of Saturn Lady Persephone in the midst of an aerial ballet, her weapon in hand and a look of peace on her face. Below her was a vast array of training targets, some were mobile while others weren't, some would attack while others would defend. Landing quickly, Persephone took on a look of determination and quickly threw up a barrier dome as a barrage of enemy fire was quickly unleashed upon her throwing up a massive dust cloud in the process.

Suddenly the barrage of fire started to go through the space the barrier had been, only for the training targets that were in the line to either be hit or have their own shield activated. When the barrage abated and the dust settled they were able to see that there in the middle of the field crouched low and her barrier pulled in close was Persephone, eyes closed and a small smile on her face. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, as an unsteady silence seemed to settle upon the battle field.

Until her eyes snapped open, and with a graceful spin and a flick of her wrist a cutting wave of power was released from the tip of her Glaive with the cry: _"Silence Glaive Surprise Revised: Saturn's Rings of Destruction!" _With that the battle practice was over as the legion of practice dummies had been laid to waist and Persephone nodded lightly to herself, only to brought to aware to the fact that she had guests by the sound of soft clapping. Blushing lightly, Persephone stowed away her weapon but kept her uniform in place as she approached the group. "Good den, Your Grace. How fare thee on this summer's morn?"

Asked Persephone as she bowed lightly to her aunt, "I fare well this den, prithee what know you of the Terran Moon?" Lady Nekhbet replied. "As much as any of the family knows," replied Persephone, "the first Serenity was granted a great boon from a dying being, while it was the ninth Serenity that had abandoned our family on the den our Ancestress Ops had been chosen to be our world's guardian… why?" "It would seem that the House of Serenity has considered on paying us a visit." Looking off to her aunt's side Persephone noticed the others, especially the one with ornate broach around her neck.

Feeling a well of power beginning to draw towards the broach, Persephone quickly pulled out her glaive and held next to Queen Arianrhod's neck. Noticing the other guardians this woman had brought with her Persephone quickly shouted "Stand down or she dies!" and in a tone that would have made even the guardian of Pluto feel as if her own planet was a tropical paradise in correlation. "And you, you dare to charge that thing in my presence!" With a deft flick of the wrist Queen Arianrhod was left bereft of the Silver Crystal, as its chain was severed and the stone fell to the ground only wind up under the sole of Persephone's boot.

In mere moments Queen Arianrhod and the other guardians were soon surrounded while staring down the business end of over forty halberds all pointing at either their necks or their hearts. Lady Nekhbet stepped close to her niece and ordered the guard to escort their guests to the special wing of the palace. The special wing consisted of specially designed chambers that were able to nullify a guardian's link to their planets mana flows.

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In the palace of Saturn, in a large room that was lined from floor to ceiling with various forms of machines, and large amounts of symbols of the arcane inscribed into every flat surface in the room. The spell guards in the room was so intense that even the glass the beakers were made from had a dual layer of spells emplaced. The reason for someone going completely anal on protection spells for this room alone was for one reason and one reason only: _Research & Development!_ In essence this is the room were the planets greatest artifact had been created, _Saturn's Silence Glaive_.

Now with planets current guardian, her nephew Hasameli, who just happened to be a rather powerful techno-mage. Who happened to be her mother's-brother's-sister's-cousin's-niece's-brother's-sister who shared three of the same ex-husbands that her dear sweet, yet completely brain dead sister Pandora did. Right now Hasameli was carefully going over the power and inner-working's of the Silver Crystal and was truly in awe over what he was seeing. "Man 'Sephone, you are not going to believe how advanced this piece of glass is or just what that white witch was about to do to you had you not stopped her when you did!"

"I could hazard a guess on that given the way the other guardians had moved, or how their eyes seemed to lack any kind of life or free will." She had said while shivering at the memory of the other guardians' soulless eyes. Turning to look at her and seeing the effects that thought had on her Hasameli said, "If my guess is correct, than what your thinking is right on the mark! That witch was powering up in order to enslave your mind, thankfully though you stopped that in time. Now that I had a chance to check this thing over it's a fairly simple construct, thought controlled and similar to how your glaive works, although on a much larger scale."

"I see, would I myself be able to wield it or are there counter measures in place to safe guard that from happening should the Serenity line lose their little bauble?" Blinking a little Hasameli looked back towards his examination equipment, "Uh… Huh? How about that, looks like its even better that you never touched this thing." Persephone tilted her head to the side a bit as she waited for him to continue, "And?" she asked when he didn't. "And my dear aunt, is that had you handled it instead of Aunty Nekhbet you would have become just another mindless tool to that witch's little doll collection. Also in answer to your questions, no you can't and yes there are."

"Damn! Can you get around the safe guards, and make it so the white witch's line can never turn the people of the Sol System into slaves again?" looking thoughtful for a moment, as he pulled away from the work consol which shortly ended in a heavy sigh. "Look Aunt Persephone, even if I could and I'm not saying I can't, it's just this crystal is incredibly advanced. It would take a joint effort of every planetary mage in this system, along with several resources we don't have access to anymore since before our ancestors made their exodus from under the Thrones radar. Hell the old manuscripts are so vague that they only briefly mention an event referred to as _'The Choshin War'_!"

"I remember those manuscripts well, along with what the personal diary of our ancestress Ops had to say about it. Apparently the_ 'Choshin War'_ was in regards to a trio of Elder Goddesses that couldn't get along and one of the three just up-and-disappeared causing the other two blame each other till they came to blows. But anyway, so no hope for the bauble huh?" Persephone concluded, Hasameli gave her a rather pointed look along with an insufferable smirk that tended to truly vex her. "Oh you wound me aunty, as I said in my rant earlier on how impossible it would be for _us_ to create one of these baubles ourselves… I never said that I couldn't rewire this one here."

Reaching around, Hasameli grabbed the Silver Crystal and tossed it, "Here catch, it will work for you now, along with the inner Guardians. It won't do the whole _'enslave your mind to my will'_ but will free the others and do massive amounts of good. Now get I've got notes to dictate as I work on other stuff."

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"Well according to the records that I managed to recover," started Hotaru, "once Persephone had the Silver Crystal in her position she then managed to release the other guardians from their mental imprisonment, to which they gave their _'queen'_ a rather painful lesson in flogging. Afterwards Persephone calmly stated that should the system ever have need of her she would be there and she would assist. However, all of that aside, how was it that this supposedly mighty empire happened to fail?"

"Well, for that we'll have to skip the next twelve generations of the Serenity line," Amalia replied, "and go straight towards Queen Bendis of the house of Serenity. She was the thirty-third person to hold that title, and like the twentieth she too had a slight mental imbalance. You see she had caught both Prince Endymion and Princess Setsuna in the palaces Rose Garden in the act of a rather heavy petting session. Well when she over heard what they were planning, she was so livid that she sentenced Setsuna to stand guard at the Gates of Eternity till times end, she also threatened Prince Endymion to marry her daughter in one weeks time or he would be forced to watched his entire family be put to death."

"Um… Honey," Amalia's husband interrupted, "just what was Endymion and Setsuna plotting that made Bendis so mad?" After taking a sip of her tea Amalia replied, "Well Ranma my love, they were making plans on how to overthrow the house of Serenity. From what I was able to gather Endymion was going to seduce the princess, steal her powers; kill both her and the Queen and then marry Setsuna and take over the Sol system." Ranma had a momentary look of shock but quickly shook it off, "Yeah, yeah I could see how that would cause her quite a bit of rage." "Now I've only got the fall and my eventual escape to Earth to cover then it will be your turn to explain things."

"Alright dear, but when are the others going to arrive?" Ranma asked. "Well we started around eight this morning, and it now going on ten o'clock… Hmmm I'd say sometime after lunch."


	3. Chapter 02: The Fall of the Millennium

**Chapter #02:**_The Fall of the Silver Millennium_

"Now," Started Amalia, "It was around the middle of the eighth millennium and unknown to us at the time dark and malevolent forces were on the move; at the time, my fellow Senshi and I had firm beliefs that the supposed the peace that we had gained would do us well and would be eternal. We were wrong, as representatives and dignitaries from throughout the system had all managed to convene at the decree of Queen Bendis Serenity the 33rd, a noble from Earth had been conveniently overlooked. Queen Bendis knew this, she this for she had planned for it to happen that way. The reason was this was to be the night that Prince Endymion would be forced to marry her daughter.

Her daughter was one Princess Celine Serenity, and this night was to be her sixteenth birthday. Now many would find it strange that this supposedly happy young woman, who spent her days amongst her people, being kind to all and aiding others, would have anything to do with sinister political plots that would result in the Terran Kingdom of Earth being annexed into the Lunarian Empire. When in fact it was her idea to blackmail the Prince of Earth into marrying her, and getting him away from the Princess of Pluto, she also knew… though incorrectly… that there was a noble down on Earth who wanted the Prince for her own.

Now this noble that I've mentioned twice was none other than a Council Woman named Lady Aradia Beryl from the house of Nemesis. She was a descendant from one of the survivors that had escaped the sinking of Atlantis… Yes love _that_ Atlantis!" Amalia states before Ranma could interrupt. "Now Beryl may have had a rather unhealthy fixation on Endymion, but there was a reason for that, he was in fact her cousin. As it turned out Endymion was the sol heir to the Earth Kingdoms throne, his mother was Beryl's elder sister, Elfleda.

And Beryl saw Endymion as a great hero, ever since he had save her from a rather nasty little dog, which with a little embellishment became a rather ravenous and blood thirsty beast. Now Beryl having correctly figured that her cousin was in trouble acted in hast with the good intentions of saving her dear cousin, however we all know how badly good intentions can go awry. In her noble quest to save her cousin, Beryl had inadvertently stumbled upon the being Amatsu-Mikaboshi who after a few thousand years had decided to go with the female persona of Queen Metalia, who we later learned was a rather weakened Energy-based life form.

Well Queen Bendis, with a few suggestions from her daughter, had barred Beryl from attending for the added security of keeping the wedding of her daughter and her prospective new son-in-law on track. However in their disregarding of Lady Beryl, neither one knew that in her desperation that Lady Beryl would be tricked into freeing the now Queen Metalia but also have her feelings become so completely twisted that Beryl would now believe exactly what Princess Celine had thought of her relation to her cousin Endymion, in other words that she was desperately in love and that her man was being stolen as they manipulated his mind.

However, in neglecting to invite Lady Beryl, the Queen had unwittingly started the rapid plummet of her once proud Empire. For you see when Lady Beryl had found out that not only was she not invited to the ball that was to celebrate the Lunar Princess's birthday, but she was also losing the only man to whom she had pledged her all to. Now with new mindset and her access to vary ancient and incredibly dark powers, Beryl had unleashed a legion of daemons, which had killed off a large portion of the Earths' population in the summoning alone, upon the Sol system.

Now Queen Bendis had informed all of the systems guardians to attend that night's activities, consisting of a ball for her daughters' birthday and subsequent marriage to Endymion. The only ones who were not attending were guardian's Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto for obvious reasons, as they were this systems first line of defense form attacks located outside the realm. And yet there was one guardian that was unable to tear herself away from what she was doing… that guardian was me, and what I was doing at the time was hooking my latest endeavor up to the _Eternity Main System_.

My endeavor as I call it was nothing more than a set of highly advanced cryo-stasis chambers, designed to keep a body in suspended animation until such a time came that who or whatever was inside was needed once more. I had just finished calibrating the two smaller chambers for the palaces Mau advisors… Luna and Artemis, when I took a swig my own personal stash of Mercurian Fire Wine… vintage 9,564bc it was a very good year as I recall, heh-heh-heh. I had just sat down, next to the last remaining chamber that needed to be fine-tuned a bit more, as I let the fire-wine seep into my nerves allowing my sleep deprived nerves to relax a bit.

However, when I went to get back to work instead getting some much needed sleep, an explosion had suddenly rocked across the surface of the Moon and shook the room I was in. Which in turned caused a swing arm to hit me and sent me flying back into the cryo-chamber and effectively sealing me in as it activated. My last thoughts before I had lost consciousness were _'Oh shit! I miscalculated the other chambers… and did I remember to turn my palmtop off?'_ Rather mundane mind you but at the time it _was_ all I could think of as my body quickly succumbed to the sleeping gas before I was flash frozen.

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Outside the palace, the few guardians that had been attending were now on the battlefield that was _Mare Imbrium_, they were supporting the Lunarian Imperial fleet but their numbers were too few where as the enemies were simply too vast. The many ships that dotted the sky were quickly becoming flaming trails of wreckage as they plummeted towards the lunar surface. As they fought on each of the guardians had felt the distress of their planet, especially when their enemy started using planet killers to destroy the magical umbrella that helped their planet to sustain life. The slight shock of feeling their planets pain had given the enemy all the opportunity they needed.

Jupiter was the first to fall as the daemons had brutally torn her right arm off only to have it rammed through the center ribcage out through back while severing her spine. Mars was next as one of the monsters had forged arm into a club and used it to cave in the back of her skull. Venus was the last as the sword that she was wielding was torn from her grasp and was used to disembowel her before one of them had reached in and tore out her still beating heart. Not far away the Princess was kneeling next to still form of Endymion, who was killed when the sword Venus had died by was casually thrown away only to unexpectedly land in Endymion's back.

Of Neptune and Uranus, both had died as the fires from the planet killers had quickly overcame them, searing their flesh while the shockwave had finished them by blasting the flesh and muscles from off their bones, all while they screamed from the pain.

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Explosions rocked throughout the palace as the remaining guards scrambled to reinforce the barriers, as bits and pieces of marble ceiling continued to rain down over the throne rooms' floor while the enemy forces continued to drive on in hopes of killing off the royal family. A palace guard ran across the throne room, that just hours earlier had held the celebratory ball for the Princess, as another set of explosions had forced him to brace himself against pole-arm of his naginata, he manages to catch site of his queens long platinum white hair.

"Your Highness," the guard yells out "you have to leave now! The dark army has breached the palace walls and will be here within moments." _**Crack-Boom**_, a distant explosion roars though closer than the last. The Queen looks at her guard and sees his left arm is coated crimson while the naginata in his right is bathed in the dark green of the enemy's blood. "I cannot leave, my place… is here!" "Your Highness you must, without you the empire will fall!" _**Crack-Ka**__**BOOM!**_ Suddenly the two heavily reinforced ornate French doors that had barricaded the way into the palaces throne room were blasted off their hinges.

Embedding each one in a broken and twisted heap on either side of the throne itself! In front of both the queen and the palaces now sole remaining guard stood the now self-appointed Queen of the Dark Kingdom… Lady Aradia Beryl. "Well, well, well… if it isn't the lady peace herself," Beryl sneers, in an overly condescending tone "Queen Bendis Serenity. My, you really to do go all out when you throw one of these little _balls_ of yours don't you? But of course you never did learn to how they say… _raise the roof_. I will see you bow before me before this night is through.

Serenity who had been sitting on her throne not only listening but also silently observing the way Beryl was conducting herself, it was quite clear to her at least that the now former council woman had apparently sold her soul to some malevolent being. Her normally long chestnut-brown hair had become more of a dark blood red; she was currently wearing a long violet colored dress, with two black crescent moons inside covering the swell of her bosom. Behind her were the four guards of Prince Endymion, the light from their eyes was no more as they looked on with hatred and malice, instead of the love and warmth that was once there.

'_Now this is interesting,' _Bendis thought_ 'she must have somehow found out what my daughter and I were planning to do tonight and in turn lost what little mind she had!' _As she had finished her thought she noticed something else, most of the planetary guardians that had attended were being held by their faces… their bodies were limp and their fuku's were stained red. She barely took note of Jupiter with her right arm relocated to the center of her chest; or the back of Mars' hair and its goopy wetness, or even poor Venus who held by the back of her hair while trailing her intestines.

The only one of the guardians that was not present had been Mercury… that alone made her smile inwardly as she thought that the young guardian might be laying in wait for her chance to strike. How little she knew. Though the sight before her that filled the once proud Queen with the pains of loss and an insurmountable feeling of pure rage, was the sight of her only daughter's corps strung up to a set of posts with the Holy Blade was still plunged deep into her heart. The surrounding area of Mare Serenitatis was quite rapidly bathed in a fearfully bright light.

Less than a second later, if one were to find themselves still standing at the Southeastern border of both _Mare Serenitatis_ and _Mare Tranquillitatis_, one would see a brightly shining star emanating from the location of the Palace. Just before being introduced to the concept behind the reasons for the naming of _Mare Crisium_ and why it had been deemed so appropriate at the time before the construction of Luna City began. However, this event happened so fast that the only event in _recorded_ history that would even begin to match it would happen several millenniums later over a place on Earth called Tunguska in Siberia Russia.

The only beings left standing after that were Queen Serenity, the enemy Queen Beryl and the guard, who survived by hiding behind the throne, who was now quite certain that his late wife's saying of Hell having no fury like that of a truly pissed off mother, being an absolute truth. For now only the two woman of such awesome power stood before him as apposed to the impossible odds of over twenty-thousand Yoma's, Monsters and daemons that had been there mere moments before, riveting his attention to his Queen he bore witness as his queen had upped her power so much it was as though she shad became a living silver flame.

Her once immaculate white dress that she wore daily seemed to flicker briefly only to be replaced by a suit of armor that offered a full range of motion, and was decorated in blue with golden trim and a single golden crescent moon over her right breast and a broadsword slung on her left hip. Nevertheless, the most impressive sight before his eyes were the pristinely white, angelic wings that simply shown with power now on his Queens back. However, faster than he could blink his queen had vanished along with the naginata he had held in his right hand.

With her wings spread, weapon in hand and one goal on her mind, Queen Bendis Serenity had launched herself towards the Dark Queen, Aradia Beryl with a cry of truly righteous womanly fury. And just like an avenging angel, this Valkyries decent was both graceful and deadly, bringing the naginata down alone upon her enemy with enough force to render even a miner deity in two. Unfortunately, Beryl had been empowered by Metalia. Thus, Beryl's own staff, which held a black crystal ball that helped tie the essence of her master to her, not only prevented her demise but also caused the very floor beneath them to concave and the naginata's blade to shatter.

Without missing a beat Serenity had leapt back and brought forth her broadsword, its handle, guard and pommel were plated in the finest of silver with highlights of the finest gold, while the double-edged blade was said to have been forged by the Galactic Cauldron itself, for those who wield the Imperium Silver Crystal in the house of Serenity. Beryl growls in a rage as she instantly recognizes weapon in Serenity's hands for what it truly is, "The _Sword of Kusanagi_! How is it that a _bitch_ like you is able to wield let alone possess a weapon such as that?"

Giving satisfying smirk Serenity replies, "By knowing how to use it and what it is to be used for! Now Beryl for the sins of your actions this day… _**Prepare to Die!**_" Thus began the true battle between the two of them, a battle between good and evil, of the light and the darkness, order and chaos began. Charging forward again Serenity feinted with a punch to the temple, a kick to the back while simultaneously plunging her sword deep into the left side of Beryl's hips. Though a little staggered, Beryl just smirks and unleashes a bolt of black lightning into Serenity throwing her halfway across the now demolished throne room.

"Not bad Bendis but not good enough, it will take far more than that to bring me to my knees." Coughing from the sheer amount of power that had been forced through her, getting to her knee Serenity holds the broadsword in her left hand while her right clutches her chest from the feeling of having such malevolent power ark throughout her body. Getting back to her feet Bendis wipes a bit of blood from the corner of her mouth, and with sword in hand leapt back into the fight without another word spoken. Serenity's _Sword of Kusanagi_ clashed heavily against Beryl's dark crystal staff again and again, swinging her sword left, right, up, down, side-to-side.

All blocked and in return Beryl would merely send a blast of dark power coursing throughout Serenity's body, Bendis would clench her teeth as her body screamed in pain from the amount of the unholy power that was sent coursing through her very nerves upon every blow she had attempted to deliver. Knowing her time was fast approaching Bendis summoned the last of her strength and pulled together the last remainders of her powers, while infusing that with all that remained of her life-force for several spells that were needed now to ensure her victory.

The first was a mass-relocation spell for all those who had died while under her rule, to be sent into the future in order to live again. The second was for the creation of a tear into a sub-dimension that was ruled by the darkened forces of chaos. For the third and final spell she had to cast, Bendis needed to ensure that all of Beryl's followers; save the seven strongest Yoma whom she could now see coming into view, would be roped into following her as soon as she had firmly kicked Beryl's scrawny arse into that dark dimension. After quickly placing all the spells in place and casting them, Bendis knew she only had mere moments left to live in order to finish what she had started.

Giving one last charge towards Beryl, Bendis added a bit more speed than before by forcing her wings to pump twice as hard while simultaneously losing feather along the way, so as when she slammed into Beryl… no matter the amount of power she used to shield herself, Beryl would be forcibly launched into the hell that had been created just for her. Beryl having seen the charge raised her shield once more, though not as strong as before, for she believed that this would be Serenity's final act of defiance.

However, when Bendis had managed to shoulder-slam Beryl with more force than was expected of her, Beryl's shield had shattered spectacularly effectively launching her away at a high rate of speed into the dimensional tear. As soon as she had seen Beryl disappear, Bendis raised her sword one last time and closed the tear. Dropping the sword while falling to her knees, the armor she wore dissolved leaving her once again in her royal gown as she came to rest upon one of the Crystal columns that had lined her throne room majestically.

The darkness was now encroaching upon her vision, with the Silver Crystal in hand she had managed to seal the remaining Yoma into the crystal and cast it into the future. Serenity gave a silent prayer to her daughter and her people. _'May you all find happiness in the distant future, for where you go I… cannot follow, but know that my love goes with you all!' _As her vision was slowly fading into obscurity, Bendis gave her final command to the soul remaining guard as the life she held in her eyes went out for the last time. As the light had left her eyes, she could hear a soothing yet booming voice speak out to her "You have done well Bendis; it is time now to come home."

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As the sole remaining guard traversed the desolate remains of the palaces once, majestic hallway he replayed the final moments of his Queens' life as he held her as she died in his arms. _'Calhoun, I ask of thee, take this blade and see to it… see to it that it is placed next to the Eternity Main System for I entrust it… to the… one… who now sleeps… through time. In…inform Pluto… not to… get into… histories… way.' _And with that said, his Queens body shimmered and dissolved into motes of light as he cried for the loss of the one he had been sworn to serve.

Calhoun continued his walk slowly but purposely down the corridors, his arms laden with a cloth bound broadsword as he headed towards the _Eternity Main System._ Turning down the corridor that held the entrance to the palace's main computer system, Calhoun was surprised but pleased to see the Outer Guardian Pluto… that is until she spoke. "You there, what is your name and rank?" Mentally berating himself for forgetting just how cold the Senshi of Pluto's demeanor is, he answered as his thoughts had started to run with _'This girl seriously needs to get laid!'_

"Names Calhoun ma'am sole surviving member of the palace guard and I'm just following the final orders given to me by my Queen, orders are as given; place Sword of Kusanagi next to the _Eternity Main System_ for she who now sleeps through time. Also to inform the Guardian Pluto of her final orders until the Princess is reborn, her orders are as stated; stand guard and do _not_ get into histories way." Pluto stood there, her face was an unreadable mask, no emotions… not even a contemplative gesture, and in short, it was really beginning to grate upon Calhoun's nerve as to how someone could be so damned cold like that.

With a swift movement the Senshi of Pluto turned around and stated, "Orders received and understood." With that, Pluto retreated back to the Gates of Eternity. For Calhoun his hopes of completing his task nearly died in vain, as when he approached the entrance to the palaces lower levels he found, much to his dismay, a large slab of marble ceiling lying on top of the door that led to the lower levels that housed not only the Main System, but also the old dungeons. After muttering a few choice curses, Calhoun started to look around for something he could use to break away the obstructive piece of debris.

As soon as Calhoun had moved away from the marble slab, he heard a faint cry a second before the sudden appearance of a long, shallow trench had appeared and subsequently obliterated the slab in the process. Taking a nervous glance behind him from where the blast had come from, the color immediately drained from his face as he saw _her_. The Princess of Silence herself… Sailor Saturn! "Thank…" his voice squeaked, "_**cough**_ Thank you Saturn, I am in your debt." A slight nod was her answer, as she walked closer towards him only to stand before him.

The glaive she wielded looked as imposing as ever while it stood at an impressive 6'5" long, compared to its wielders' was only 5'2" tall. Quickly regaining his composure, Calhoun carefully approached the Senshi of Saturn, "My lady, would thou like to accompany me on mine task?" Lightly placing her hand within his and slightly bowing her head in an attempt to hide her blush, she gave him her reply. "I would be honored to accompany you Sir Calhoun." Lifting the now exposed entrance door to the lower levels, both Calhoun and Saturn descended the stairs.

As the two descended into the lower levels, Calhoun could no longer contain the question that was nibbling at the edge of his brain. "Forgive me for prying milady but I do not believe that I have the honor of knowing your name, and I do believe it would be far more considerate to address you accordingly than merely by your Guardian title." "My name is Tacita Diane, a name of irony if there ever was one. For it literally means the _'Silent Celestial Hunter'._ From what Pluto has told me it is apparently from a language that has yet to be spoken down on Earth." "Fascinating, my name subsequently mean _'Warrior'_ which comes from something called _Gaelic_ I do believe, Lady Diane."

A light giggle had filled the air as Lady Diane had taken note of the current situation "The _Hunter_ and the _Warrior_ arm in arm traversing the Palace undergrounds… how romantic." As both Tacita and Calhoun conversed to each other neither really noticed that their expedition to the _E. M. _system had taken relatively shorter than expected. They had been brought out of their musings when the two of them came to a set of large double doors at the end of the corridor. On the doors, which was conveniently placed, had been an engraved plaque with the inscription reading: _Eternity Main System Operations._

Walking up to them, Calhoun and Tacita both gave a hard push and to their relief both doors began to open, and before long, the two individuals were through the doorway and looking into the room that greeted them. To say they were surprised would have been like saying that Sol was just a _wee_ bit hot. The room they were standing in was huge, of course a room being huge did not necessarily mean anything grand or special, no it was not the size of the room that caused them to stare. It was the _computer_ that they were both staring at, for something that was several of thousands of years old it seemed take on a life of its own with the amount of space it took up.

Computer screens seemed to litter the area while data charts, diagnostic programs of various types continuously ran. The protective covers for keyboards were still open awaiting the return of the one who would once again input a command into its interface. As Calhoun's eyes swept over the room, he could make out a name engraved on the side: _Eternity Main Systems._ This was apparently, what the computer itself was called when the first settlers had arrived from beyond the Kuiper belt and preceded to Terra-form the surrounding planets.

Looking over to his right Calhoun blinked, and the he blinked again, as where the Senshi of Silence had been standing, now stood a very regal looking young woman in her early to mid-twenties with long violet hair, a slender build while maintaining her curves in all the right proportions. _'Damn, Tacita is… absolutely… gorgeous.' _Giving his head a firm shake Calhoun proceeded on with his task, as he and Tacita approached the three cryo-tubes they were both surprised and pleased to see that both the Queens advisors were already asleep within their stasis pods. While the larger stasis pod held the last Mercurian Princess, Lady Amalia Hisakawa.

Her face was turned to the left, while her blue tresses were draped across her right shoulder in a rather stylish braid. The mini-skirt of her uniform was practically indecent, while a sense of modesty was practically non-existent with how the body stocking of her uniform clung so tightly to her body as to leave nothing to the imagination. The blue bow upon her chest somehow managed to add a slight hint of modesty, no matter how slight it may have been, that bow had to have saved her from embarrassment time and again whenever it was not only cold outside but also when her mind tended to wander towards things not exactly becoming of a warrior princess.

Calhoun closed his eyes and sighed looking up he looked about to find the Princess's palmtop sitting open upon one of the few workbenches. While familiar, himself with Mercurian tech it took Calhoun a few moments to find the program that would allow him to record a message for Princess Hisakawa. After getting that taken care of Calhoun turned to Princess Diane as she had finished up her part of the message and shutting it down, and took a moment to steel his nerves, looking her in eye and found he could loose himself within those strangely beautiful violet colored eyes asked.

"Princess Diane, I would be honored if you would join me in relocating Planet side down on Earth. Due to Beryl's actions, the Silver Millennium is now over and I could not find myself sharing what else may come with anyone but you at my side. Would you my dear huntress, join with me in possible wedded bliss?" To say she was shocked was like asking her if she liked to breath, which of course she did. "Calhoun I… I don't know what to say! I mean… in all my time as the guardian of Saturn nobody has ever showed any interest in me at all! But… yes, _**sigh**_, yes I would love to marry you Sir Calhoun."

And so, Calhoun and Lady Tacita Diane of the house of Saturn and the twenty-forth to hold the station of guardian, settled down upon Earth, upon a stretch of land called Japan in the terrene year 7,069bc of the Jomon Period, where their descendants continued on for the millenniums to come. Though, not one of their descendents would be able to wield their heritage for a long time to come as the planet Saturn took it time to heal itself.


	4. Chapter 03: Departure from the Moon

**Chapter #03:**_ Departure from the Moon_

For 9,047 years did Princess Hisakawa sleep, never ageing, never changing, and never knowing what changes the world below went through. So it was on this day of the terrene year, Tuesday, October 10th, 1978ad did Princess Amalia Hisakawa finally awaken from her long timeless sleep. The long drawn out hissing, like that of a pressure release valve being opened, filled the room with a semi-dense white fog allowed for the Princess to slowly comeback to consciousness. "Oh wow, just how long was I out?" she asked, as she put her right hand to her forehead, "Not too long I hope… what the Hell? Everything's coated is dust thicker than my favorite pair of wool socks!"

Getting up out of the cryo-bed Amalia starts to look around, and was actually surprised at the amount of damage that was around her. Whole sections of the ceiling had seemed to have caved right in, though thankfully they seemed to be mostly in non-critical areas of the room. After quickly locating her palmtop she was actually surprised at two things, one was the rather ornate looking broadsword resting alongside her palmtop, and the second being that their was actually a message waiting for her. "Oh man just what in the Nine Hell's happened while I was asleep? Oh well, I might as well check out the message… heh, who knows it might be insightful!"

_~ "Is this thing recording?" "Yes Calhoun it's recording, you may give your message now." "Ahh… thank you Lady Diane. __**Coughs!**__ Greetings Lady Hisakawa the Guardian of Mercury, no doubt by the time you view this message many a millennia will have passed during your long sleep. I know this may came as a great shock but this is only a part of what has happened, I am saddened to say that the Silver Millennium is no more… for councilwoman Beryl has laid waste to all that once was, also your fellow Senshi fell in battle. Furthermore, Her Highness the Late Queen Bendis Serenity XXXIII has hereby entrusted you with this," ~ _Amalia notices he's holding up the same sword that now rests upon the table, "Hey that looks like…"

_~ "the Sword of Kusanagi." ~ _"Ex-squeeze me!" yelled Amalia._ ~ "Wielded by the Queen herself during the battle with the Dark Queen Beryl, you should also know that there is practically nothing left of any of the Kingdoms. Save for Lady Diane's castle along with those of Uranus and Neptune, Beryl in her infinite stupidity has taken out Castle Charon believing it to be the resting place of the Kingdoms most guarded secret. However, what she did not know was that we actually had two, the first is the more open secret of the Gates of Eternity, and the other is you! You my not want to hear this but between you and Senshi Pluto, I believe you have a greater chance of making sure that the spirit of this once great kingdom does not become just another footnote in history only to be blacked out like the real reason behind the destruction of Atlantis." ~_

"Wait a moment, the destruction of Atlantis? But… but Atlantis wasn't destroyed I know cause… because I found it just last month," suddenly her jaw drops as her face suddenly pale's with understanding "over several millenniums years ago." _~ "It's okay Calhoun, you did good. I'll finish up the message for you alright?" "Yeah okay." "Greetings Lady Mercury, our Princess of waves. I am Princess Tacita Diane, Senshi of Saturn and unfortunately in all that has happened, the only one to have survived the unfortunate slaughter of my entire kingdoms population. I know only this, by the time you awaken… only the Earth will still be able to sustain any life, that is why for those that have survived, though few we may be._

_We shall be going planet-side and live out the rest of our lives in some hopeful peace. The Hanger should still be intact; the only ship offline would by Her Majesty's… __The Verthandi__. Please take care Lady Hisakawa and may the Gods favor you upon your journey." ~_ After that the screen went black, with the words _'End of Message!'_ flashing across the screen.

Closing her palmtop, Amalia places it back within her personal pocket-space and allows what she has heard to fully sink in; the tears were already flowing. It wasn't until some time later that Amalia picked her self up off the floor that she noticed the semi-dense white fog had already dissipated. Grabbing for the sword, Amalia was quite astonished when a bright light had filled the room, when her vision cleared the sword was gone but she somehow knew it would return to her hand when and if she needed it.

As she turned to leave Amalia had a sudden bout of inspiration, quickly making her way over to the _Main System_ she had decided to get a brief rundown of what happened over the past millenniums. To say she was shocked was anything but understated; the system was nothing more than dead planets and old Terran garbage, save for the remains of an old Juraian star-cruiser. That last one gave Amalia reason to pause, "A Juraian star-cruiser… I wonder just how long that has been there. Was there a survivor, and if so… is he or she still alive?"

Quickly setting the Palaces _EM System_ to be up-linked to her palmtop and inputting the Command Code for the reconstruction of the palace. Amalia quickly headed for the hanger and was all too soon displeased at what she was seeing, out of the one-hundred and thirty-four-thousand ships only one looked like it was even still capable of flight. The bad thing was… it just happened to be the Verthandi. Muttering a few choice curses in the language of the Tan-Plax knar, Amalia set off towards the Verthandi, and prayed that she could get the old girl flight worthy soon.

Once inside Amalia checked the engine's core and all the electronics, amazingly only a few parts were needed to fix the ships engine and a few dozen or so wires and circuit boards had needed to be replaced. Having a running list going on her palmtop Amalia was almost immediately scouring the rest of the hanger for the much-needed parts. The rest of the ships, which were all smaller one-manned crafts off the old Vanguard line didn't have much left to them individually, although in all they gave her the engine parts she did need. The circuit boards, data crystals, and fiber optic cables were a bit harder to find but not by much.

The data crystals to her amazement had been the easiest to find as they had all been well housed in a padded crate. The circuit boards were a more challenging venture for there were none usable in any of the old Vanguards, nor in the office that seemed to make up the hangers repair station. No, she needed to go to back and look around in the Systems Maintenance closet. It was close to four years later and Amalia had never before felt so pleased with how things had gone, sure finding all the parts for the ship had been hell and had taken the better part of the first half of the year!

However you wouldn't here her complain about it, at least not in any recognizable language of course, but she was delighted nonetheless. The rest of the year was filled with repairs being done on not only the ship itself but also on the equipment needed to repair said ship. By the time the repairs to the equipment were complete, the hanger was once again in operational order and from there the real work would soon begin. The second year had seemed to draw out well into the third year, as not only had the entire collection of engines on the ship been in need of a good overhaul, which took two to three months per engine alone. But she really wanted something to eat.

By the time the engines were done, miles of cables needed to be checked and resulting in the entire hangar floor being covered in dozens of piles of useless cables which had to be replaced. In addition to over three-hundred fractured and/or shattered data crystals that needed to be swapped out with new ones, and over two dozen burnt out circuit boards that had to be replaced. Coincidently the cryo-bed that had been her personal tomb in time was now integrated into ship. Indeed, for what would have taken the normal maintenance crews the better part of a year and a half to have gotten done, it took her less than four years to accomplish.

The only things she needed to do now were check the ships onboard AI system, run a preflight check and obtain a decent nights sleep. As she thought on what she had to do, she couldn't help but grin, for if she was ever asked about the ships engines she'd simply reply: "The Munchausen Drive is a work of art along with the sub-light, the _F. T. L. and the Ion drive_, and I feel honored to have worked on such an extraordinary technological masterpiece!" The deck of the vessel was of the contour of a large ellipse, a variety of chairs and terminals were aligned along both the port and starboard with helm set smack dab front and center.

The command chair was set closer to the aft of the bridge; along with chairs on either side, possibly for the first officer and the ships councilor. However, this was subject to change should the Royal Family and its entourage come aboard. The ship alone was a technological marvel, utilizing the best in an Atlantian/Juraian Hybrid Technology. The Data Crystals were of Atlantian design, allowing for much larger data processing and faster computations. It is rumored that the greatest scientific mind the universe has ever known had an actual hand in the ships construction and the creation of its AI matrix, which was happily named: _Verthandi._

The ship is a revamp model based off an older design, from their former system of origin, that ship was referred to as _The Throne_. However, with judicious amounts of forethought involved, the hundred or so sterile grey colored decks that would have been standard on any military vessel at the time had been done away with in support of a more contemporary feel. Allowing for a reprieve from the sense of being closed in, the ship currently sported a total of ninety-six decks; the length was approximately 647.7 meters by 342.9 meters across. Although when the need would unfortunately arise between any given time, the Verthandi was for all purposes a _Warship!_

Hosting living quarters for over four-thousand crewmembers, though the Queen's lodgings tended to be highly more regal than even those of the other Princesses or visiting dignitaries. With the Oak flooring, teak furniture adorned with relief's of gold lining the walls, and the satin sheets upon the emperor-sized mattress that were a stunning royal blue. With all this splendor one would tend to inquire, had the good queen allowed herself to become even the tiniest bit corrupted during her reign of power?

For the answer one need only to see the red silken bathrobe, which still to this day lay draped across the four-poster bed, was embroidered with an awe-filled sight of a golden dragon encrusted with finely crushed jade coiling around the owners' body in a rather possessive manor. To assist with both the deceptive look and feel; a large _'ladies only'_ communal bath, having been designed to simulate one of Earths natural hot springs, was specially added and resided along decks thirty-eight and thirty-nine. The entire bathing area was measured out to be 225 meters long by 125 meters wide.

Engineering itself spanned from decks eight through twenty; housing the four main engine reactors along with the heart of the Verthandi itself. An engineering masterpiece in its hybridized creation, utilizing the best in Atlantian design and the technology developed during the height of the Silver Millennium.

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Amalia was standing on the bridge of the Verthandi looking out across the hanger feeling pretty good about all she had accomplished over the last few years, the palmtop in hand had a direct link-up to the ships navigational center and she had a prayer in her head. _'Oh sweet Kami-sama, please let this work!'_ Quicker than one could blink, Amalia's fingers were flying across the palmtop's keyboard and in less time than it took to actively spell, Antidisestablishmentarianism, she had already broken through five firewalls, suffered three system crashes and had narrowly avoided being blown to hell when she had inadvertently activated the ships self-destruct system.

**Mercury Supercomputer is now On-line… Awaiting Command Input:**

**Command:** 4cC355 5H1p5 On bo4rd KOMpu73R

**Command:** 4LL 5Y5tEm2 5t4RtUP

**Authorization:** m3RCuRY 1G2

**Password: **53r3N17Y

**Authorization and Password acknowledged, Please Wait One Moment**

Amalia was just grinning like an idiot a zeptosecond later as the ships lights, life support, navigation and an assortment of other systems and protocols came online. Along side her now stood the full holographic AI interface for the Verthandi in a flowing Victorian style dress. The only problem was… instead of appearing as a beautiful young woman in her early twenties, it now appeared as a seven-year-old little girl. Amalia's grin fell off her face and allowed her right eyebrow to rise only slightly as she watched the young Holo-Girl pat down its seemingly non-existent chest, turning its head to look straight at Amalia and spoke in a flat tone of voice.

"_You got crystals 32c and 38b in backwards, and if you don't fix them now all the crystals will shatter and I will die! So come on, follow me and let's set them right."_ As the little 3D Holo-Girl walked off down the corridor, Amalia couldn't help but wonder just how did she put those two crystals in backwards. Amalia noticed that the little Holo-Girl in front of her had come to a stop in front of one of the many access panels for the ships data crystals, however before she could say any thing the little 3D Holo-Girl spoke in that flat tone of voice she had used moments before.

"_Alright, I need you to open this panel and take crystal 32c pull it out, flip it over, stick it back in, give it a half turn to the right and do the same thing to crystal 38b alright."_ Amalia responded with a nod of her head and quickly popped the access panel of to the data crystals; before her hand had even reached the crystals the ships AI had stopped her with a well-timed statement. _"To make sure things don't snowball, I'll show you the two crystals and then I will temporarily shut down while you fix the problem."_ Amalia watched and noted where the two crystals were positioned.

As soon as the AI interface had faded from sight and the active glow from the crystals had stopped, Amalia quickly and carefully pulled out crystal 32c turned it over so its other pointed end was going in stuck it back in and as she had been informed gave it a solid half-turn to the right. She quickly but carefully repeated the process with crystal 38b, once she had taken her hand away the crystals had started to glow again and next to her now appeared a young woman in her early twenties with chestnut colored hair, long flowing white and blue robes with accents of gold.

"_Ahh," _Sighed the newly maturedAI_ "much better… well done. Greetings to you, I am Verthandi AI this vessels onboard command interface and I thank you for the repairs. Now if you don't mind my asking, who might you be, where's my crew and just how long have I been in dry-dock?"_ Taking a moment to figure out how to answer these questions, Amalia placed the access panel back in place and stood up to look Verthandi in the eye. "Alright I'll explain things as they are to the best of my abilities; my name is Princess Amalia Hisakawa and the current Senshi of Mercury. Roughly, around nine-thousand years ago the kingdom had fallen under a surprise attack from within.

To my knowledge, it was Councilwoman Aradia Beryl whom led the assault. Presently the palace aboveground has been wiped out; I have set the Eternity Main System on the job of repairing all damage and rebuilding the castle and the surrounding grounds." _"Excuse me ma'am but why not give that job over to Deus, after all I feel reasonably certain that he'd be more than adequate to perform."_ "I don't know, I understand he's your brother and all but isn't he a bit umm… variable?"_ "Not at all, he's merely misunderstood, nonetheless he is my brother by that we're related by code and it's that code that I believe he'll do what's right."_

"Sigh; very well see if you can make contact with Dues. I'll be right back, I have to go grab the two Mau advisors contact me in case something happens all right." "Yes ma'am." With that, Amalia went back outside the ship and headed back for the _E.S.O._ room. Meanwhile back on the bridge and seemingly relaxing in the command chair sat the Verthandi's AI as she set about contacting her brother. _'Come on Dues pick up already, I swear…'_ the Verthandi's thoughts were interrupted when the view-screen suddenly flashed and the image of a somewhat strange looking old man came into view.

With a big yawn, the old man took a moment to register who it was that that now calling after so long. Before he could say anything though Verthandi got things started, _"It's good to you again Deus, how have you been brother?"_ "Vert…? Oh… Vert-chan," Deus says sounding surprised "where the hell have you been? I swear you never called or anything, do you have any idea just how damn _boring_ it is to be left running for the past nine-thousand years with nobody but that old ninny of a operating system to talk to. I mean she is older than we are and every time I try to start conversation with her, it is always the same damn line with her _'I remember a time when…'_"

Groaning in exasperation Verthandi decided to go a slightly different rout with her brother. _"__Deus Ex Machina__! Will you get a grip on your hard-drives already; I need you brother before my systems crash in despair… please!"_ Startled at his sister's outburst, Deus was able get out of his rut in ROM, and allowed his processors to start running again. "Whoa, sorry about that sis, so mind telling me where you've been all this time?" _"I've been sitting in dry-dock needing a few repairs, an overhaul and some serious downtime. Unfortunately that meant being completely turned off."_ "Damn that's rough, so tell me how did you get turned back on if you're stuck in dry-docks?"

"_Let's see if you can wrap your circuits around this one, I was completely repaired from the bottom up and I can presently tell that I was given a full overhaul on all my engines. The battle damage all along my port side and across my bow is completely gone; my weapon lockers have been entirely reloaded and the armory has been stockpiled with every weapon to have ever been held by the Kingdom… including a few planet busters. Deus… I'm a little frightened here; I mean it feels like I've been equipped to go to war again!"_ "Sigh, its okay sis I'm here, now can you tell me who the people were that repaired you or the reason they had for causing you this kind of stress?"

"_No, that's the predicament. It wasn't the habitual crew of engineers with the purpose of doing my repairs and over seeing the reloading of my armaments! It was the Princess of Mercury herself, Lady Hisakawa!"_ It was here that Deus' digital jaw had hit the virtual floor, "How could it be her, after nine millenniums with absolutely zero life readings from the time when the fall occurred, how could it be her? Of all the Senshi, only Pluto was cursed with immortality because of her position as time's guardian. So, I inquire for verification once more… how could it be her?"

"_Deus, my scanners confirm that along with the maintenance done to me, key components have been reworked and incorporated into my structure that given someone of her level of intelligence, could have easily designed and built them into a cryo-bed."_ "Okay, that explains the how… she froze her herself. Now all I would like to know is why?" It was here that the door to the bridge slid open revealing Amalia standing there in her ceremonial dress with a smirk upon her face as she said, "That is an easy one to answer… I was intoxicated and had been knocked back when an explosion had ripped throughout the palace grounds on the upper levels. Mmmm… Hello Deus."

"Gulp, Ma'am… it's uh, it's good to see you again." Chuckling a little as she watches how easily Deus gets flustered, Amalia simply shook her head as she also took in the slightly humorous sight of Verthandi looking as if her eyes were about to burst from her cranium. "It is indeed a relief to see you once more, Deus. However I have need of your expertise on an affair of some significance." "How might this unit be of service to you ma'am?" "Deus I necessitate the desire to inquire upon matters pertaining to the reconstruction of the Lunarian Palace, can you do it?"

"Yes ma'am, however it may take some time given the existing state of affairs; given a rough estimate, it will take close to twenty years to complete. One other thing ma'am, sensors detect an unknown structure on the surface currently located in the southern area of _Mare Tranquillitatis_, however it does not appear to have been there long; somewhere close to a decade I'd say. Furthermore the Holy Blade is currently located approximately two-hundred yards due south and four-hundred meters towards the west nearing _Mare Vaporum_." "Understood, I shall investigate in a fortnight. Now if you'll pardon me, I am in dire need of the baths and a proper night's slumber."

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**Monday, August 2****nd****, 1982:** A fortnight later, Verthandi had her engines up and running and was presently in orbit over _Mare Frigoris_; Amalia was in her Senshi guise to combat the near total vacuum of the lunar surface and was currently trekking her way across the border of _Mare Imbrium_. In search of the Holy Sword, better known to her as the Sword of the Silver Crystal, Amalia couldn't help but speculate the near infinite reasons that could have caused it to have ended up all the way out here. However, when she reached the site as given by Deus her reaction was anything but expected for what she had found half-buried in the grey dust that covered the lunar surface.

"No… no it's just not possible." Amalia choked out with unrestrained horror, as she looked upon the skeletal remains of her princess with the Holy Sword still plunged deep where her heart had once been, and the millenniums old blood stain that had bone from the point of the blade to the hem of her dress. For one long instantaneous moment the silence of space was both completely and utterly broken. "**_Noooooooooooooooo!_**"

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In the darkened reaches of space, in crystal prison of her own making, the mind of the universes greatest scientific genius briefly stirs for a moment with only a thought _'That poor girl… I wonder… what… happened…' _fading off into its unnatural slumber once more, awaiting the day when a certain bubble brained ditz of a blond would inadvertently free her.

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It was now several hours later, the Holy Blade was currently placed inside Amalia's magically crafted stuff-space pocket, her eyes were red and her cheeks were stained with tears. Her uniform was filthy and coated gray from giving her long departed friend a proper burial. Moreover, where was our dear Princess Amalia now… why she is currently sitting down in one of the strangest, and to be reasonably straightforward rather primitive land vehicle's she has ever come across. However all of this information is useless as Amalia is no longer crying but is instead quietly contemplating the trash that was left behind by a bunch of astronauts here at _Mare Tranquillitatis_.

Especially the strange mettle plaque from the men who dared to leave their, ugh… waste behind them. In her right hand, she held the small nine by seven and five-eighths inch, rectangular plaque back up to read it once more:

** **Here men from the planet Earth** **

**first set foot upon the Moon**

**July 1969, A.D.**

**We came in peace for all mankind**

It would be almost funny if she didn't think it was all so morbidly wrong, after all this message was left here over a decade ago and it dared to proclaim such a thing as peace now when her home, friends and family were all dead and gone. Just who was it that took them all away from her in the first place, why none other, than men _from_ Earth. With a casual flick of her wrist the steel plaque was sent right back to where it came from, being half buried in the dull grey ash that was now all that made up the once great Lunar Kingdom, the shining jewel of the Sol System… now just another lifeless rock.

Her head was in her hands Amalia sobbed, she sobbed for the friends that were now lost, she sobbed for her mother and father but most of all she sobbed the failure that plagued her eternal soul for not being there for her princess when she was needed the most. Suddenly her head snapped up, a determined glint was in her eyes… which was conspicuously narrowed.

Her left hand grasped firmly onto the navigational _'T'_ stick, and her lips curled into an unseemly scowl. The knuckles of her left hand within her white glove had started to turn white as she firmed her grasp on the _'T'_ stick to its near breaking point as she growled out "I… refuse… to let… it end… like this!" Suddenly she shoved the _'T'_ stick forward and gave it a twist, bringing the rover back to life in an instant and in a thrust of motion the rover was soon speeding its way across _Mare Tranquillitatis_ with twin fishtails of grey ash spraying into the thin air.

'_No I will not let it end like this, I will venture to Earth, I will find my princess and I will guard her like I should have from the very beginning!' _"Verthandi, drop in low and open the hatch I've acquired some wheels and I'm coming in fast!" Having picked Amalia up on the scanners and indeed she was, for the reduced lunar gravity, coming in fast. Verthandi was soon maneuvered over the lip of a large crater and had the airlock doors to the lower mini-shuttle bay opened as well as the anti-gravity tractor beams primed and ready to use as soon as Amalia had launched herself into the ship.

Amalia was tearing across the lunar surface, unknowingly channeling a touch of her powers into the underpowered rover, over 45mph. Amalia was grinning and she knew it, more of her magic was unconsciously channeled into the rover's power cell and the throttle was full open with the 'T' stick shoved as far forward as it could go. The Verthandi hung heavily in front of her, adjusting its height and distance so often and quickly that catching the Mercurian Princess would be a thing of beauty.

Verthandi watched on her video monitors as the princess raced towards her as if the legions of Hades were on her tail. Verthandi was amazed at how fast that primitive vehicle could move, _'That damned thing's already doing 90mph, at that velocity I'm going to have to pull away almost immediately as she gets close.'_Amalia was closing in; in her adrenalin-induced mind, the lip of the crater in front of her was just steep enough to where she wouldn't end up crashing head-on. Working on an instinctive level that was fueled by raw emotions and adrenalin, an almost visible field of blue power shaped its way in front of the rover.

The lip of the crater was now in sight and if Amalia had been thinking straight at that moment, she would have realized that the angle on the craters rim was all wrong for what she was going to do. Fortunately for her, her magic at that moment had gained an almost sentient state, which allowed its power to move in concert with her, doing things that she never knew she could. She couldn't stop now, she didn't want to. Her perception of time slowed to a crawl as the adrenalin flooded through her veins, and her magic shone like it had never shined before.

Glancing to the left a bit, Amalia could make out the individual pieces of ash and rock as the front wheel too was sending up a large wake of debris as she went. This was it, the rover's front wheels had made contact with the crater's wall and the semi-visible field of power became a bit more solid as the front end was making its way towards the crater's rim. The rear tires quickly followed suit, her speed was fantastic and just as she had launched out of the crater she felt as though she could fly. Verthandi watched on in slight amusement as her princess had cast herself off the Moon's surface with reckless abandonment.

The smile that had blossomed on her face was truly priceless as the primitive vehicle now drifted into space, and she let herself drift among the stars. The power readings that Verthandi had been monitoring since the princess had journeyed out upon the Moon's surface had all been nice and steady. However once she had her emotional breakdown, the same could no longer be said as her power levels had quite rapidly toped out over nine-thousand ohms in mana production. In short that much mana will have some interesting side effects over time.

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In a sub-dimension some-when in the Sol System, a long forgotten solder still standing at her post with an ornate staff in hand was snoring lightly, though she would refute it entirely. Had in fact utterly missed the vital detail concerning that the Gates of Eternity had closed themselves off in lieu of an on-coming temporal storm. The only response this momentous event had garnered was a light sneeze followed by the mumbled statement of, "Beryl no Baka, you come back with my cookies!" which held absolutely no importance as to what was transpiring throughout the time-stream. Nor would it even be detected until it was far, _far_ too late!

And so, Setsuna Meiou… the sole guardian of the Gates of Eternity, and the last Princess of Pluto, slept on throughout one of the few decades she had allocated to herself until the Princess had returned. Never knowing that the illustrious Goddess's of the past, present and future all stood close by. Giggling with reckless abandon, while the ensuring that the gifts they themselves had bestowed upon her, continued to fulfill its function. Indecently, due to a certain goddess having a bit of fun, Setsuna's child-like dream was quickly becoming a bit rather hot and heavy while causing her to call out in a throaty moan, _"Oh Endy, what a man!"_

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Amalia was spent; the hormonal imbalance she had experienced mixed in with the adrenaline high and coupled together with a severe overdose of her planetary mana flows, left her feeling more tired than she had ever been before. In other words, she was just plain exhausted, but a quick stop off at her home planet and she knew she would feel right as rain. Of course, she knew what it was she would find there once in orbit, a desolate chunk of rock that was both half-baked by the sun and half-frozen by the darkness of space. However, what Amalia was counting on was the fact that her castle was left untouched as it resided underground.

As the Verthandi made its trek towards the planet Mercury, Amalia was relaxing within the Queen's Suite quietly working away on her palmtop as she was professionally swimming her way through the Terran's rather primitive electronic network of information. What she found was rather intriguing though limited, as she was slowly but not completely able to learn as to what had happened for the duration of time that she had been asleep. However, her mind was not completely as focused as she would to have liked it to have been. Amalia found to both her exasperation and her newly found guilty pleasure as the queens silk robe rubbed her body in a rather sensual manor.

However, before anything could happen, much to her libidos insurmountable displeasure, the only holographic-artificial-intelligence in the known Sol System with a genuine people personality subroutine decided to materialize itself into existence right in front of the partially robed Mercurian Princess. Needless to say, Amalia was quite shocked and extremely embarrassed as she pulled the robe tight around her smooth nubile body, "Don't you know how to knock Vert-chan?"

Giving a slight chuckle, Verthandi AI replied, _"I apologize your highness, I did not know you were 'busy'. How-ever, I figured you might like to know that we are currently in orbit around your home planet."_ "Yes thank you," Amalia said tartly, as she held the robe tighter against her body "now if you don't mind I would like some privacy so I may change!" Giving a curtsy, Verthandi started to dissipate her image from view _"As you wish milady, I shall be on the bridge if you are in need of me."_ With that, Verthandi faded out from sight.

'_Damn, I wish Zoicite was here, but no that… that woman had said he needed to return to his post as the European commander Hah! It was not even a week after he left that he disappeared, oh goddess… how I miss him!'_ Closing her eyes for a moment, Amalia envisioned the sub-closet her Senshi powers had provided her. To her it wasn't very big, sure it could hold a verity of clothing, shoes and other accessories, but what really made her cheerful was the actuality that a few of her favorite outfits were still there and that she had enough room left over to add say a good two to three dozen pounds of just random stuff.

Searching out for the outfit she wanted for what she was going to carry out, it turned out to be the uniform she had been issued after she had been granted the position of official Planetary protectorate. It was nothing special really, more sentimental then anything given the fact that it happened to be her post-military academy dress uniform. With her choice made Amalia's form had appeared to blur for a moment as the dragon robe had shifted into storage and her dress uniform had taken its place, complete with a fresh pair of lacy undergarments.

From the bottom up, Amalia could only be described in so many ways; however, one of the more commonly used was _"The kind of sexy that made any hot Venusian sex-psychiatrist so mad with envy that a mud-wrestling tournament had to scheduled for that afternoon… just to calm things down!" _Her feet were encased in a pair of highly polished black high-heels with a two-inch steal spike concealed within. Her legs were concealed in thigh-high nylons; the royal blue mini-skirt reached down to mid-thigh and managed to provide a lot more decency than her Senshi uniform allowed, what with its pleated micro mini-skirt that just barely covered her tush not to mention it did absolutely nothing but cause embarrassment if she ever needed to bend over.

Her chest was covered with a light button-down, cotton blouse with a black necktie and a Royal blue jacket that was cut, not only to mold but also to lightly accentuate her nubile figure. Upon her hip hung a sword, its blade was made from crystal shards from the mines on Mimas. The guard and pummel were cast in the fires of the Martian planet's volcano, Olympus Mons. The grip itself was entirely wrapped in silvery thread, the thread itself was said to have been made from the vary hair that was donated by the goddess Urd herself.

Looking herself over in the room's floor length mirror Amalia was proud to note that yes she still had the looks that could make any man drop as their blood was instantly diverted from the one thing they had often, if ever, seldom used. With one last look in the mirror, Amalia gave a nod and headed for the rear of her vessel where she had managed to have repaired one of the few remaining drop-ships, given it a fresh paint job of white with blue flames and officially dubbed it _The Phoenix_!

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It was several weeks after Amalia's departure from the Verthandi, when the drop-ship had returned baring a somewhat weighted cargo. The princess's demeanor was at an unparalleled low. As Verthandi had watched as Amalia disembarked from the drop-ship, she became increasingly worried, as Amalia's footsteps were anything but relaxed. For Amalia however, her heart was heavy and her mind was now unsure. The uniform she had worn down to her family's castle ended up serving as what she wore to morn the dead. As she walked with purpose towards bridge of her ship, the ship that was once her queen's, Amalia could no longer keep the images that plagued her memories at bay.

_**Flash: **__"This is Princess Hisakawa inbound for Castle Mercury on vector 2-2-Mark-1-8 does anyone read me over?" the transmission gave back only static "I repeat, this is Princess Amalia Hisakawa inbound for Castle Mercury on vector 2-2-Mark-1-8 does anyone read me, please respond over!" Amalia could not raise anyone on the radio; she had the feeling that there never would be another transmission from the Mercurian Palace ever again; little did she know how right she was. The primary hangar doors had been welded shut and that only left the old abandoned shuttle bay at the north pole of the planet. _

_**Flash:**__ It was a few hours later, and Amalia had managed to gain access to her planet once more… although she was beginning to wish she had not. As she had traveled down the hallways, Amalia could see traces of a firefight. The skeletal remains of her people littered the hallways; all were ranging from the very young to those of an adult. She knew she would be spending the next week picking up the remains of her people, "Once that's done," she told herself as she resisted the urge to just turn around and leave "I'll load up the drop-ship with everything I can and head for Earth."_

_**Flash:**__ It was now the middle of the third week and Amalia had not slept since she had arrived, her people's customs concerning the way the dead were to be handled had come to disgust her during the first week she had been here. For those that were not of the royal family, their remains were to be gathered together and tossed into the sun where they were to become one with the universe once again. The Royal Family however was to be entombed in the Family mausoleum; along with her ancestors, the newest occupants now included the remains of her parents, her elder brother and her younger sister. For the first time since she had awoken from her cryonic-sleep Amalia found herself to be truly emotionally dead._

_**Flash:**__ A month has passed since she had returned home; Amalia's sitting in the cockpit of the phoenix in her right-hand is a photograph of her and her family after she had graduated from the academy. In her left-hand was a half-empty bottle of Martian Red Liquor, "Oh how I wish I could get drunk, the most I could ever achieve was a slight bloated feeling accompanied by a light headache… stupid senshi power!" Behind her were crates filled with trinkets, treasures, books and scrolls, weapons of all types and the entire storeroom supply of the most intoxicating beverages to have once been found throughout the Sol system. "Hmmm, I must simply try some of that Saturnian ale one of these days, for now its time to return to Verthandi."_

Stepping onto the bridge, the Verthandi's interface program faded into view and found itself quite concerned with its mistress's appearance. The clothes she wore were of course clean, though what drew the most attention were the vacant bloodshot eyes that stared off into the void. Verthandi's introspection was quickly interrupted as Amalia spoke in a flat, lifeless tone that for Verthandi was incredibly disturbing. "Turn the ship around and let us head for Earth, there is nothing left for us out here." _"As you wish, milady, course is laid in and we are now leaving orbit around planet Mercury."_

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**Sunday, October 10****th****, 1982:** Amalia found herself traversing down the shopping district of Azabu-Juuban, when in front of her a seen of horror plays out as a young four year old little girl runs out into the middle of the street, chasing of all things a brightly colored red ball. Just as soon as the little girl is reaching out to pick up her ball Amalia is horrified to see a large tractor-trailer is now baring down upon the little girl. In a burst of speed that had left onlookers gaping, Amalia had covered the distance in less time than she'd have thought possible.

In a moment of where her Senshi powers and the endorphins of adrenalin once again came in to play, a miracle had occurred. Just as Amalia was but not a few feet away from the young girl and the monster of a rig was now upon her, both Amalia and the little girl vanished from site just as the rigs driver had locked up his brakes causing the whole thing to jackknife and caused the biggest, non-lethal pileup in Azabu-Juuban's recent history. On the other end of the street, back towards where the little girl had came from stood a beautiful young woman and in her arms was the little girl that had just moments before chased after her toy ball.

Patting the little girls back while simultaneously trying to calm her own nerves, the young woman spoke soothingly to the young girl. "There-there young one, you're safe now there's nothing to fear, you're safe." Seeing that the little girl had calmed down a bit she proceeded to talk to her a bit more. "There you go, feeling better young one?" the little girl nodded slightly while giving a week "Uh-huh." Chuckling a bit the young woman smiled, "Can you tell me your name, mine's Ami… Ami Mizuno." _'Friend of water huh, not bad for a name you made up on the spot Amalia.'_ "My… my names A… Akane, Akane Tendo tank you for saving me."

"You're very welcome Akane-chan; now tell me, where might your parents be right now?" "Momma's inside talkie to da doctor, daddy gone to get funny dwink." Amalia's… Ami's eyebrow started to raise a bit. "He went… to get a funny drink and left you alone, just what type of funny drink was it?" "Dunno, daddy come home stinky an sleep long." _'Clearly her father is out getting drunk, but to have left his child unsupervised in public no less… ugh! If this were to take place back home, that man would have been drawn and quartered so fast he'd have little time realize he had been killed!' _Shaking herself from her thoughts Ami looked down at Akane, "Come Akane let us go find your mum."

Before Ami and young Akane had entered the hospital, a young girl with a lithe figure and long raven-black hair ran up to the two while calling out "Excuse me ma'am you dropped your bag!" As soon as the young girl had stopped, she had pressed the bag firmly into Ami's hands while saying rather rushed "You dropped your bag, didn't want someone to merely walk off with it now… well bye!" As the girl turned and ran Ami could clearly see the strange mallet strapped to her back, unfortunately young Akane did as well. Reaching into the purse Ami pulled out a picture ID with her face on it along with the name she had just made up. Along with the ID was a letter that read:

**_To Amalia Hisakawa/Ami Mizuno_**

**__Congratulations on saving young Miss Tendo's life, as reward we here up in Asgard have provided you with a legal identification and a place to live. As well as someone to act as your legal guardian for bit, hope you like her. In a few years, your talents as the Senshi of Mercury will be needed once again, in the meantime relax and enjoy life, as any normal young woman should. A bank account has been opened in your name with a sizable donation that will assist you in the years to come._**

**_Signed, the All Father_**

**_Kami-Sama_**

**_(Lord of Creation)_**

And so started Amalia's new life as Ami Mizuno, a young woman with blue-hair and an affinity for books. It made her smile when she realized that it all started when she saved this little girls life, turning back to Akane the two went inside to find the young girls mother.


	5. Chapter 04  The Dragons Gift

**Chapter #04:** _The Dragons Gift, an escape from Chaos_

"Oh wow, so you're really an alien space princess momma?" Bell asked in a state of awe and wonder. "I was once honey, though had things gone a bit different back then I'd have never met your father. I would have probably ended up staying the reclusive bookworm that I had become." Amalia looked over at her husband and chuckled in thought _'He's always so cute when I catch him thinking like that, I just wish could read his mind.' _"Ranma my love, what are you thinking about?" "Hmmm… oh sorry." Ranma replied while scratching the base of his ever-present pigtail, "I was merely wondering what missus Tendo was like, I never did get to meet her before she died."

"Oh she was a very kind woman, reminded me a lot of my own mother. She was also very beautiful, a brilliant tactician when her little girls started up with something. Why even at five, little Nabiki had the beginnings of an obsession with money. Kasumi though… that girl was so dang spirited, it was such a shame though when their mother died. All three of them took it incredible hard; Kasumi withdrew into herself attempting to emulate her mother's kindness. Nabiki… she became cold and indifferent to the world, and sweet little Akane… she just became so full of rage. It did not even help them when their father virtually abandoned them to wallow in his depression."

"Yeah, yeah that sounds just like them when I first met them all those years ago." Ranma replied, sounding a bit depressed. "I'll be right back Ranma; I'm going to go call the other girls." Amalia said as she had gotten up to leave. "Alright dear, I'll start on my part of the story then. Oh could you bring me one of the Neptunian Malts please?" "Sure thing love." With that said, Amalia sauntered out of the sitting room while implementing one of her husbands' many techniques, _the lazy walk_. However, as it had been originally designed for men at the time to throw an enemy off balance.

Once his wife had actively used it against him. Ranma had quickly renamed it to the _'Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, Strut of the Sexy wife!'_ Thus the name stuck, for Amalia used it against him whenever she could. "Daddy are you gonna tell me your story now?" Bell asked, effectively snapping her father out of his lust-filled trance. "Cough… Yes Bell I am, now like your mother you have known me as both your daddy and the Dragon King, however what you didn't know is that I too," here Ranma paused as his form shifted and blurred becoming that of a slightly shorter though well proportioned, red-headed young woman in her early to mid twenties, "am also your mother."

"Wow… that's just uh, creepy. How'd it happen?" Bell asked, as she looked at fa… mother as he… she appeared to be dressed in a pair of black slacks and a red blouse. Hotaru was attempting to hold her laughter in check. "Well dear, it all started about a year after your mother had met Akane. Your grandpa was obsessed with the martial arts, so much in fact, that he would literally proclaim that everything else was a distraction and thus it was counted as useless and avoided at all costs. It all happened a week after I had turned five, pops had just tricked me into finger-painting on a seppuku contract so he could take me away from my mother.

Well needless to say, she was _not_ happy. In fact, she later told me she had thrown everything at him… including the kitchen sink! However, he still managed to escape with me under his arm all while I was crying and reaching out for my mom. And so for the next ten years, he trained me in all forms of combat. Including a few that crossed the line into torture along with animal cruelty, I don't mind telling you this dear but I'm glad he can't work his paws into you."

Look up into her mother/father's eyes, Bell asked "Paws, grandpa had… paws?" "Sigh, Yes dear, you see it was shortly after I had turned sixteen that your grandfather had taken me to a place in China in order to finish off our so called _'training journey.'_ Unfortunately, neither of us knew nary a word of Chinese nor could we read it, the place was called Jusenkyo and it had a bad habit of luring people in and altering their very lives. I was born a boy and while growing up with pop being my only role model, well let us just say your mother still finds it hard to believe that I had managed to turn out as well as did at any rate."

"You got that right! Honestly the things he did for the Art." Amalia said as she duck back into their private kitchen. "However, the real story starts just over half a year after I had first met Akane; it was near the beginning of February back in 1994 and I was having one my usual fights with my old friend/rival Ryoga Hibiki. He had this knack for getting lost wherever he went; well he ended up getting lost at one of the hardest to find places on Earth, the Forest of time where the Mushrooms of Ages grow. Oh, don't get me wrong I was pretty upset when he had gone and turned me into a five year old and over such a little accident too.

I had placed the mushrooms in the furo believing it to have been still broken from the last time Akane had walked in on me, what I didn't know was that it had been repaired and the out of order sign just hadn't been taken down yet. Well those mushrooms ended up being destroyed and in his depression, he had forced one down my throat and blasted me out of the bathroom, when I came to a stop I was just five years old again and had been caught by Akane who was at the time my fiancée. Ryoga and I fought a great deal after that, when we had gotten back we were still fighting and during all that fighting our ages had shifted so much that, we both ended up as eight year olds.

We were nothing more than a pair of brats who just couldn't behave; looking back now, I realize just how immature I had been in dealing with the situation. Well Akane had eventually gone and taken the remaining mushrooms and hid them, and like any desperate thou quite naughty children Ryoga and I ended up tearing Akane's room apart looking for them. It wasn't until we had quite literally stumbled upon them that the chaos that had ruled my life for so long had decided to tag-team with Murphy's Law and Ryoga's own warped logic, causing everything to just start snowballing out of control. Of course, when two high-level martial artists rendered bereft of their physical maturity well unfortunately, that just made everything worse…

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"Ryoga you Idiot!" snapped a chibi-Ranma as he reared up to tackle Ryoga. Everything had happened to fast for Ranma. Ranma and Ryoga, both 8 years old, sick and tiered of being helpless, had desperately tried to find out where Akane had hid the magic mushrooms. When they did, an argument had broken out between them. Ryoga, being the short fuse he is, snapped and attacked Ranma, toppling the mushroom crop all over the in the process. _'It all gone, it's that idiot Ryoga's fault!'_ thought Ranma, as an angry red aura flickered around him. He jumped at Ryoga, forcefully tackling him to the ground and punched Ryoga face, as Akane walked in at the very moment.

Akane, with her _unclouded_ and _unbiased_ views on Ranma, decided that the fight and destroyed mushrooms were all Ranma's fault. Pulling him off Ryoga, she flung chibi-Ranma halfway across the room, temporarily disorienting him.

Ranma managed to reorient his senses in time to see Ryoga turning back to his normal age and disappearing across the corner. He quickly rushed to table, only to discover that there were no other surviving mushrooms._ 'I'm stuck in this weak body!'_ Ranma's mind screamed. "This is all your fault you tomboy. You let Ryoga have the mushroom. You stupid flat chest…" snapped Ranma fiercely, only to find his fragile young body flung into the air by a mallet impact. A few hours later, an old lady rushed a small red-haired girl to the hospital across town.

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_**Ranma's dreams: **_Ranma found himself on a foggy cliff overlooking a valley. The fog shrouded his vision to the extent that he could barely see his small hands. Taking slow steps to reorient himself to his body, chibi-Ranma trudged forward along the side of the cliff. A few miles down the path, Ranma heard a rustle beside him. It seemed to emanate from a forest, which had somehow appeared beside him out of nowhere. It was a remarkable sight. The entire forest was filled by shades of green he didn't know existed! A closer look at the lush forest revealed colorful flowers, trunks, and multicolored butterflies illuminated by the soft light shining through the canopy.

As Ranma nimbly moved through the forest, he heard something that sounded like weeping. Pushing a few bushes aside, he came across a clearing encompass by the forest and a stone cliff. The entire area was breath taking, the ground covered by soft green grass, a large tree across to the right beside the edge of the forest. At the center was a pool partly surrounded by boulders, filled by a small waterfall pouring from an opening in the cliff. Neighboring the pool was a log enveloped by greenery, on which a figure sat. Ranma moved forward to see a woman hugging herself, crying silently as locks of her cascaded red hair floated around her.

"What's wrong?" chibi-Ranma whispered to her in a soft voice that could only spoken by innocent child. The woman slowly moved aside making spare room for him to sit. She then turned to him. "Do you really want to know?" in a voice filled with sorrow. She was beautiful, a soft smooth face and deep blue eyes. She resembled his older girl side, yet looked different…older, more mature. "Yeah lady! I'll help you if I can…" said Ranma cheerfully, hoping to console her. He never liked to see girls cry. "I will show you." she whispered into his ear and moved her soft hand over his eyes. In the next moment, Ranma found himself in floating in the air.

He was watching a girl trudge to the woods bloody and beaten; she only seemed to be to move forward. The woman suddenly tripped and slid down a cliff. She fell and drowned in a pool, located in valley filled by hundreds of small pools and a few bamboo shoots. "It happened almost three thousand years ago." Commented a voice behind him. "You're the girl who drowned in the Nyannichuan?" exclaimed Ranma as she turned to face the red-haired girl. "No. That is the Nyannichuan, made 1,600 years ago…" she said pointing to another pool. "…created by the musk." she spat. "Then what was the pool you fell in called? It…It was the one I fell in."

Ranma wondered nervously. "The guide said it was the Nyannichuan!" "It is a long story." she said in a tired voice, looking like she was about to cry again. Ranma moved towards her and hugged her leg reassuringly. He then took her hand, led her to a small boulder to and sat her down. "I wanna help you!" said Ranma. "I… thank you, I hope you would be able to help me too." she replied softly. "The story begins thousands of years ago. A dragon had appeared in this world, tiered and weary from horrid conflict.

An evil wizard managed to control the powerful dragon to do his vile deeds. He made it do horrible things, kill woman, and children! Hundreds of years later, a group of heroes decided to end the evil wizard's rule. Led by a powerful mage, the group killed the wizard. Thinking that the dragon was helping the evil wizard they cursed the dragon, as they were unable to kill it. The dragon was forced to wander the earth as an immortal but defenseless woman, suffering as the victims of the wizards had. Around 2,900 years ago after escaping from the cruel musk, she drowned in the spring; the magic of Jusenkyo counteracted the curse."

"You were the dragon! That's horrible… I'm so sorry!" commented Ranma "That was a cruel and unjust thing they did to you." he snapped angrily. The Dragon Lady softly smiled as she touched chibi-Ranma's face calming him down. "Thank you," she said gently, "but the story is not yet over. I thought my suffering was over when I died, but the spring trapped my spirit. For almost three thousand years I have been stuck in the void of the spring. I…I wish I could die and be free of the pain…" she concluded sadly. "How… How can I help? I wanna help you." Replied Ranma earnestly. She sadly turned to him and abruptly asked, "Why do you hate me?"

"I…I don't!" Ranma replied waving his hands earnestly. _'Why would he hate her?'_ wondered Ranma. "You hated your curse, did you not always want to be rid of it, rid of me?" she commented. "No! It's not like that! I don't hate you. I don't hate being a girl, at least not anymore. It scared me! Pops always said girls were weak. Shampoo wanted to kill me first cause I was a girl. Then there was that idiot Kuno. I thought that no one would be a friend with a freak like me. Akane didn't as soon as she found out." The woman pulled chibi-Ranma in a hug "Shh! You will find friends, people who like you for who you really are. You will find love, just wait and see."

"How do I help you?" repeated Ranma looking up to her eye. "When you help me, you will help yourself too, but you will not be Ranma anymore." she said. With a wave of her hand, Ranma turned to chibi-Ranma-chan. "I can't be Ranma? You mean I can't be a man!" he exclaimed, franticly back peddling. "No way, I have to be a man! Just have to!" Ranma mumbled hysterically. "I just said _'you will not be Ranma anymore'_, never that you couldn't be a man. You would be yourself yet something else, unable to return to your old life. It's your choice, I would never force you." she said sadly drooping her shoulders.

"Is there any reason why you have to stay this way? Has being Ranma brought you any good? You are a child now." "I… I don't know. Mr. Tendo won't care, cause I can't marry Akane and carry on the dojo. She hates me anyway. Ryoga, Mousse, and even Kuno can beat me any time now. If I go back pops will just keep engaging me over and over to fill his fat stomach. I can't see mom cause of the _'man among men'_ thing. I guess I don't have anyone… You win! I'll do it to set you free." "You are the only one who was kind enough to risk all to help me. Thank you. A good deed deserves one in return." she replied in a rich musical voice.

The Dragon Lady, once called Lorena, glowed and floated off the ground with Ranma. The world then lighted up and turned white for Ranma. In the valley of Jusenkyo located near Bayankala ranges in China, a pool glowed turbulently and then became still as its waters waited for another tragedy.

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Chibi-Ranma woke up groggily in the darkness. It was cold, damp and muddy. The wall he supported himself against felt slimy. The place seemed oddly familiar, and so did the strange smell. The place smelled like fish! The he saw it, a dozen glowing eyes in the dark. _'__No__!'_ his mind screamed desperately. He was… He was back in the pit, with the c…ca…horrible furry creatures. Just like it happened eight years ago! They were going to bite and claw him again! Ranma looked around franticly hoping for a way out. As the eyes and yowls drew closer, Ranma grew increasingly frantic until he felt a pair of arms wrap around him.

"There is nothing to be afraid of." a soft voice whispered. Ranma felt locks of hair fall around him, red hair. It was the Lorena! "You were a child then, helpless against your father and the cats. You are a child now, but you are far from helpless. You are strong, you can stop this." said the lady soothingly. "I'm not strong anymore, I can't even beat Kuno like this!" exclaimed Ranma, nervous and afraid. "You, Ranma Saotome afraid? You are strong! A Strong honorable person, tenacious beyond ends, helpful and kind. Mousse turns into a duck, but he found a way fight as one. Cologne is an ancient and shriveled dwarf but she is stronger than you!

You turn into a girl, but you defeated the mighty dragon descendent Herb! It all depends on who you are inside Ranma. To get rid of your fear, you have to face it. I believe in you…" said the lady vehemently, nudging Ranma forward. A few nervous moments later Ranma slowly got up. He turned to look at the smiling Dragon Lady and walked towards his worst fears, his aura flickering to life. He was Ranma Saotome! Ranma Saotome never loses! Ranma Saotome never gives up! Ranma Saotome always wins!

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_**It was now three weeks after the accident: **_If the _'normal'_ residents of Nerima were asked, they would rename the district _'chaos and destruction'_. Most of Nerima showed some damage, parts of it were in shambles. There were destroyed flora, roads, and buildings all over, overextending the abilities of the reconstruction companies over their max. All this was surprisingly caused by one person. To be more specific the lack of that one person. It had been over three weeks since the disappearance of Nerima's most flagrant resident, Ranma Saotome.

His fiancée's anxious over his disappearance blamed and attacked each other, their suitors destroyed property in _'trying to find and bring the vile monster to justice'_. The favored fiancée, Akane, was angry with everyone due to the reassembling of the Hentai horde, placing most of the blame on her _'baka fiancée'_. Tofu was questioning his sanity for the dozenth time. He had always considered himself a smart, bright man; his medical abilities were a testament to it. He stood at a large park waiting for a notorious group of Nerimians' to appear.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better… much, _much_ worse!" he said to himself recalling the volatile nature of the news he was going to dispel. Tofu watched his guests appear at the park, one by one. He had chosen this somewhat desolate location to spare his clinic and minimize the destruction to other residents, just in case. The Tendo's and Mr. Saotome were the first to appear followed closely by others. In the next few minutes that passed, several fights had started and been broken up. Tofu sweated as he saw the fiancés gathered in a corner, staring vehemently at each other, their auras blazing in multicolor.

The assortment of Ranma's rivals were standing as close to the fiancés as they could without causing severe harm to themselves. Konatsu sat patiently next to Ukyo, as Tsubasa watched her from his mailbox disguise. Mousse, on the other hand, lay crippled in the garbage can where his Shampoo had _'lovingly'_ deposited him. A sudden cowardly squeal distracted Tofu from his observations. Smiling to himself he turned to Genma, who was shriveling under his wife's harsh gaze. Mrs. Saotome turned and bowed to Tofu, then sat close to Genma, very visibly fingering her katana.

Tofu had invited Nodoka, promising information on Ranma, who, he had said, was hidden from her by Genma. Taking advantage of the momentary silence, Tofu coughed loudly to get the attention of his guests. "A few days ago an elderly woman was rescued from a few thugs by a boy." He announced. After pausing to make sure that he had everyone's undivided attention, he continued. "The eight year old boy who had rescued the lady was unfortunately fatally hurt. He died in the hospital, and was cremated a few days ago." said Tofu, holding up and urn as he finished.

"As the Tendo's and Ryoga know, Ranma had eaten a magic mushroom several weeks ago that reduced his age to that of an eight year old child. The child who died at the hospital was Ranma." Choked out Tofu. He then handing Mr. Saotome the urn, a letter and several certificates. "After the _'Herb incident'_, Ranma made these _'just in case'_." he said, handing each of the fiancés a letter. Nodoka seemed in shock seeing how the Tendo's and Genma react to the unbelievable story. Shaking, she opened the letter, only to break down crying a few minutes later. As Genma moved to comfort her, she flared up at his touch and swung her katana at him.

Missing him, she then started chasing him with it. The fiancés were a bigger mess collectively. Ukyo was being led home by Konatsu, Shampoo by her great-grandmother Cologne, and Kodachi by Sasuke, all of them listlessly clutching their letters. Kasumi was trying to comfort a sobbing Akane, as Nabiki tried to keep Kuno from her. Mr. Tendo had initiated _'wail #123'_ which concerned the _'Anything Goes'_ school's future in jeopardy.

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"Whoa wait a minute, you died? And you met some strange dragon woman in your head only to have been placed into a pit of starved _cats_! Please dad, tell me you're just pulling my leg!" Bell practically screamed at her father-turned-mothers face. Placing her hand upon her daughter's head Ranma soothed and calmed her frantic daughter down, "No sweetheart I did not die, and with the help of Dr. Tofu we had essentially faked my own death. The only ones that knew differently were Doc Tofu, Kasumi and my mother after she had… _'dealt'_ with pops. Now may I continue?" getting a rapid nod in response, Ranma continued as Amalia returned handing her husband-turned-wife the light jade colored bottle of a Neptunian Malt.

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Sighing Tofu entered a room after bolting most of his clinic shut. The room was sparsely decorated and only had a small television and a couch at the end of the room. Tofu quietly moved towards the couch, but abruptly turned around startled by a shuffling sound. He turned to a small figure by the door with dark red hair tied into a pigtail and dressed in dark clothes.

The little girl moved smoothly forward, almost floating over the ground. "How did it go?" she said. "Ranma where were you?" exclaimed Tofu. "Had to go retrieve certain things." said Ranma flatly. Noticing Tofu's raise eyebrow he continued. "Just a few pictures, some money amounting to about 200,000 yen. Also got a few scrolls form my worthless dad, and some from home. Picked up a few trinkets that might be useful form Cologne. I then put it all in subspace, part of the hidden weapons technique I learned watching Mousse." "Was that wise?" asked Tofu.

"Don't worry about it. I made sure Cologne blames Mousse; nobody cares about pop, and few photos. Besides Ranma Saotome's dead, I'm just plain Ranma who nobody knows yet. Everything did go off right, didn't it? There no way anyone can trace me?" inquired Ranma. "Yes it did. Even Nabiki wouldn't suspect a thing. Are you sure about all this?" replied Tofu. "No turning back now, like I told you before Ranma Saotome had to go; he was in too much trouble."

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"Honey," Amalia broke in, "I thought you said that you didn't die. Yet you clearly told that doctor that you did, were you lying to us when you said, and I quote: _"No sweetheart I did not die…"_ sighing Ranma replied, "Amalia I did not lie to you, our daughter or Dr. Tofu. I told him the truth from a certain point of view, the person I was before I had met Lorena did in a sense die. I had mentally grown up; my aura and physical appearance had both drastically changed when Lorena had merged her draconic heritage with me. I was no longer the same from that time on. Now may I continue?" "Sigh… Yes dear." "Thank you." Ranma replied while giving her wife a kiss.

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Tofu thought back to several days ago. He had gone to the hospital to help out a colleague with a strange case. To his surprise, his patient was an eight-year-old Ranma-chan, glowing in a soft blue aura. A few shiatsu points later, Ranma groggily woke up. Ranma seemed very different now, everything form his aura to his attitude had changed, to his astonishment. Ranma had matured by leaps and bounds, which was very ironic, trapped in child's body. Ranma had eventually told Tofu that he wanted to move on. He had no delusions or misconception of his current situation, or, for the matter of fact, about any part of his life. Deciding to take control of his life, he had asked Tofu to help him, who immediately agreed to help his favorite patient.

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"It was for the best" said Ranma breaking Tofu's reviver. "My fiancé's will get over it and go on with their own lives now. Don't have to worry about honor and all; I could only marry one of them anyway. The letters will make sure they don't do nothing drastic, my _'last wishes'_ and all you know. Akane will be happy; she doesn't have to marry a pervert." Ranma said sullenly. "Mom doesn't have to be disappointed by her unmanly son who turns into a girl. She'll make sure pop gets what he deserves." he added with a small smirk.

Motioning Ranma to follow him, Tofu walked to the kitchen. He then handed Ranma a glass of warm water, which Ranma waved off. "Doesn't work anymore." Ranma said with a grin. He then stepped back then morphed with a small glow.

In the place of the girl stood a well-muscled, slender boy who looked around 9-10 years old. His hair undid itself from the pigtail and flowed into a ponytail. It had turned a dark blood red with streaks of black and silver, clashing with his soft blue silted eyes. "H…How?" stuttered a very surprised Tofu. "It's a long story." said Ranma brushing a strand of hair off his eye. "Lets hear it!" said a grinning Tofu, who after recovering form the initial surprise started walking to the couch.

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Calming an excited Tofu, Ranma narrated his encounter with Lorena, the Dragon Lady. Ranma explained her predicament, his offer of help, and how she had cured him of his ailurophobia… giving him partial control over the cat fist. Smiling he recalled how _'Ranma had to die'_ to help her. He was now part dragon; he had part of her essence. She had finally found peace, and passed on beyond the great veil. Her memories and experience of thousands of years helping him in times of need, helping him control his new powers. She appeared to him in dreams and visions, teaching him to manipulate his dragon ki, magic, tact, culture, and the social skills that he lacked.

It was almost like reading a living novel. Lorena was more of a parent to him than Genma and Nodoka ever were. Even after death, she cared and nurtured him, never abandoning him, never expecting anything in return. "But how did you change?" questioned Tofu. "Some dragons are naturally shape shifters. Getting dragon blood from Lorena, it somewhat mixed in with my Jusenkyo curse, giving me control over it. Right now I'm not sure if I can shape shift into anything else cause I'm a kid, and a mere hatchling compared to dragon age. Lorena says that I'm gonna almost stop aging when I'm 18 to 20-something."

"I thought she was teaching you culture and language?" said Tofu with a large smile. "Hey! It takes me time for studying. The baka panda made sure I had no aptitude for anything other than martial arts. Besides Lorena only knew archaic Japanese, English and other languages." muttered Ranma. He frowned as Tofu started laughing. "Don't see what's so funny." he mumbled. "Well I'm just surprised someone actually made you realize that Ranma." replied a smiling Tofu. "What are you going to now Ranma?"

"Leave town, no ones gonna know I'm alive. I guess I'm going to be a nameless ronin adventurer. Lorena knew many places where there were dragon artifacts and dragon burial grounds. It's going to be a wild ride. Only, this time, this trip I'm going to learn things other than martial arts and fighting. Who knows! I might make some new friends, meet someone to love." said Ranma cheerfully. "I could add you to the Ono registry Ranma. You don't have to be a ronin. It doesn't mean we have to stay here. I'm leaving Nerima soon anyway." said a dejected Tofu.

"Thanks, but no. I have to leave all of my old life behind, can't let no one find me. I'll miss you though; you, Kasumi, Ucchan, maybe even Hiroshi and Daisku." Said Ranma. Frowning when he saw Tofu flinch when said Kasumi's name he quickly added "Kasumi's the reason you're leaving isn't it?" "Ka…Kasumi… I…Yes" muttered Tofu hopelessly. "Can't even talk to her. How do I tell her I love her? Does she even feel the same way? I hurt people when I'm around her too, it's no way a medical professional should behave." sadly shaking his head he plopped back into the couch.

"I can help you with that doc." said Ranma as he jumped on to the space next to Tofu and hovered over the ground. He playfully tapped Tofu's glass. "I know she likes you. I know she's hoping to meet the man of her dreams soon and marry him, it's so obvious from all the romance novels she keeps reading." "Really? Sh…She likes me?" Tofu's glasses started fogging up. Quickly shaking his head to calm his self. "It's hopeless!" he replied sadly. "I can help you with that problem…" said a smiling Ranma. "Kasumi deserves a good man for a husband, she's sacrificed enough. Just make sure you keep her happy"

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Orange light creeps from the distant horizon, lighting up Nerima. _'Ignoring the destroyed buildings, roads, and running water, Nerima can look both wonderful and peaceful.'_ Ranma sarcastically thought from a rooftop. Thinking back to last night, he recalled Tofu excellent martial arts potential. He had almost learned the soul of ice in one night! With some practice Tofu would be able to speak to Kasumi without going bonkers. Ranma hoped they would be happy together. Ranma took a deep breath, turning away form the sunrise.

He took one last look at his favorite haunts during last year. The Nekohanten, Ucchan's, Furinkan High, Tofu's clinic and finally the Tendo Dojo. Despite all the problems, the Dojo was the closest thing he had to a home all his life. A few minutes later, a figure jumped from a tall building. Almost gliding in the air and over the rooftops, it quickly headed out of Nerima.

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"So, having falsified your own death you escaped from Nerima, while ignoring the whole statement that Lorena had given you about _'You won't be Ranma anymore'_!" Amalia said as she continued to sip her tea. "No I did not ignore what she had told me, I learned and grew from what she had told me… and she was right! It was the Ranma I had been before I had met her that I could no longer be. Back then, I had been a rude, foul-mouthed jerk, and when it came to getting a cure from Jusenkyo's death magic, I would stop at nothing to achieve my goals. I had often enough put my own honor off to the side in order to attain that which was always beyond my grasp!"

Taking a swig of the Neptunian Malt in what was once again his hand, Ranma paused a moment to cool his rising temper. For him ever since the merger his blood seemed to boil more readily than it used to. "Ironically enough, after I had left Nerima in search of the first draconic burial ground I had fallen straight into the one lap, which to this day still confuses the neigh immortality right out of me, of the one and only Morgan le Faye!" "Wait!" Amalia screeched, "You're telling me that you met _the_ Morgan le Faye while you were exploring some old dragons' crypt?" Scratching the base of his skull, Ranma replied "Uh… yeah, let me tell you what took place back then. It all started…"

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It has been close to a month now since the whole incident with the mushrooms, yet only two weeks have passed since he had made his escape. It was at times like this that the young boy who had at one time been known as Ranma Saotome found himself wondering once again how things in his life had suddenly come to this.

The _'this'_ at the moment just happened to be him falling through the dimensional barrier's while as a young girl dressed in a pair of children's tan colored khaki's with a lime green leotard and a pair of child sized boots. The fact that she was falling was not the problem, nor did it have anything to do with her current gender. No, the problem as it stands just happened to be that she had no idea just where she was falling to. Ranma knew she had to be getting close to wherever she was falling to, due to the simple fact that the wind that had been mysteriously absent as she fell, had quite suddenly erupted around her causing her decent to slow considerably.

As her red draconic wings unfurled, Ranma was able to get a better view on her surroundings as she passed through the cloud layer. Around for miles was nothing but a densely packed forest, save for a large clearing in which resided a pleasant little cottage made of timber. Off to the right side of the cottage was an impressive vegetable garden along with a respectably sized grape vineyard no more than twenty feet away. However, it was what had been planted over on the left side of the cottage that had really caught Ranma's eyes, they were trees but they sported ridiculously over-sized fruit of every kind.

In the last two weeks, Ranma was not idle in merely getting away from Nerima. No, she had thrown herself into a massive training regiment in order to get used to the more… exotic contributions that Lorena had slightly failed to mention after the fist time they had met. She had to learn how to make landfall with out crashing, how to handle the near overload of information that her senses were now giving out. From the moment she had woken up, she was instantly aware of the three weeks that had passed, by the mere feel of the dirt that was on her skin. From the smell of the antiseptics and ointments, she knew instantly that she had woken up in Dr. Tofu's clinic.

The scents in the air told of the recent visit of Kasumi, her tears though dry now, spoke of great sorrow and the need that begged for her forgiveness. Even now, the sensory load was practically staggering as she differentiated between the thousands of pixels and shades of the green in the trees and grass below her, the grey in the clouds around her and the blue that was the sky above her. Colors that had never even existed to her eyes before were now hers alone to stare at in silent awe. Shifting her vision Ranma could now see the area of magic that blanketed the clearing and the focus of it seemed to be emanating from within the cottage and was heading for the door.

Touching down softly, Ranma hid her wings allowing her to appear more human than she really was anymore, though it did nothing for her eyes as they told just how far she had truly lost her humanity. Quickly pulling a small coat out of nowhere, she had just slipped it on when the front door had opened revealing a young woman who appeared in her early to mid-twenties with her raven hair styled in a braid long enough to be wrapped loosely upon her waist. She was dressed in what Ranma could only describe as a long green dress with long billowy sleeves. "Oh my!" the young woman exclaimed, unknowingly emulating one Kasumi Tendo.

"Umm… you're not from the conclave of wizards… are you?" She asked, sounding quite certainly frightened. Thanks to the language sessions with Lorena, Ranma was able to figure out that she was speaking in English, which allowed her to answer the _unique_ question. "Uh no ma'am I'm not," Ranma saw the woman visibly relax at those words "actually I don't quite know where I am. Oh umm, my name is Ranma what's yours?" "Oh, sorry, I'm Morgan, Morgan le Faye. Would you like to come inside, I can bring out something to eat if you're hungry?" "Yes, thank you!"

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"Wait a minute, are you telling us that you willingly walked into the cottage of _the _Morgan le Faye? Just what were you thinking honey?" Amalia practically screamed as she literally half throttled her husband. "I was thinking like an eight year old little girl who saw someone that was scared and could possibly use a friend." Ranma exclaimed as his head was violently shaken back and forth while his darling wife's hand were wrapped around his throat. "Daddy, just how was someone afraid of an eight year old little girl?"

"Well Bell," Ranma said as he managed to free himself from Amalia's grasp, "I was in a child's body, still relatively new to being a young dragon and I did not have a firm grip on concealing my true strength at that time. So naturally having sensed my arrival and how untamed my powers were flaring, she had thought that I had come to kill her." Amalia had then apologized while Ranma picked up where he left off.

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Inside the cottage, Ranma was sitting at a quaint little table enjoying the meal while having a pleasant, if a little odd, conversation. "Mmm this is good, so let me see if I understand this… this world is not a world but a prison." Morgan gave a simple nod, "And this prison is nothing more than a pocket dimension to which some jerk-off stuck you in for the rest of eternity, and now that I'm here I'm stuck too… damn that sucks." _'Morgan le Faye,' _Ranma thought,_ 'I know I've heard that name somewhere before, but where? Hmmm… Let's see, the clues so far are Morgan herself, magic, wizards and the fact that she's dressed like those people at that fair Akane dragged me to last year… hmm.'_

"Ranma you look as though something is troubling you, would you mind telling me what it is?" "Yeah sure, I was just wondering where it was I heard your name before… say you wouldn't happen to know some guy's named Arthur and Merlin would you?" "Unfortunately yes, Arthur is my half-brother in which we share the same father; he was shall we say, rather loose with his morals. As for Merlin, well when he was young he did have a decent talent for some slight of hand but other than that, he had literally no real aptitude for mystic arts. I on the other hand am a natural!" "That would explain why the entire area of magic here seems so intent on following you."

"Exactly, well that and the fact that everyone and their dog were unreasonably afraid of me." Ranma paused a moment as she heard and felt the strong depression coming from that statement, "Um I'm sorry far asking but why were they afraid, I mean you seem like a very nice lady who just needs someone to be there and to be a friend." "Thank you for that and you're right I do need a friend. As for why though… I swear, you make one _little_ mistake while reciting a little cantrip, and suddenly you're branded as an evil witch for all of eternity! Just what pray tell did I do that was so… so terrible? Well I'll tell you, I… I _sneezed_!

I sneezed while I was casting a simple illumination spell to see under the bed when I was nine. Honestly, it is not my fault that the village had been vaporized as a result! I mean at least nobody died, right? I mean sure a few of the more _noble_ ladies that had been passing through ended up a bit _freer_ than they had previously been." Her lips suddenly curled into a smirk as she remembered seeing all those prissy women as their entire bodies went red with sheer embarrassment.

"After that, well the town magistrate had it in for me for a number of reasons. The first just happened to coincide with the events of that night, namely it was those supposedly _Noble_ women that were passing through. The second was because he had been found in an even less than reputable position than his own wife. The old sod just happened to choose that night to visit the one woman in town that made even the filthiest of animals look clean. The third well… I believe it was when I ended up turning the man into an interesting shade aubergine one day after he had made a rather rude comment about the dress I was wearing.

I rather liked that dress, well suffice it to say, that when they saw me and the fact that not only did I still have my dignity intact but also smoke wafting from the apparent blast crater around me, they had the fastest trial and threw me out of the village that vary night. It wasn't until I was about in my twenties that I met that fool Merlin, along side him just happened to be my idiot half-brother Arthur. Unfortunately, the poor boy had little to no inelegance at the time as he just laughed and clapped each time every time the old ingot-behind-the-ear trick was done. Sad thing is he was only a year younger than I was… and I _was_ twenty-three at the time.

Well Merlin had somehow, in a weird sense of warped logic, figured that I was a threat to his plans and bribed/blackmailed some of those on the conclave to banish me from the Earth and I ended up here soon thereafter. Well that is enough about me for now; what of you Ranma, surly you yourself have a sordid tale or two to tell?" "Well yeah, though it's not something I generally like to talk about but I guess it wouldn't hurt. First, I gotta tell ya this isn't my true gender nor my right age, but I'll explain that in a bit. My name is Ranma my parents are Nodoka and Genma Saotome It all started back when I was able to start walking…"

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Meanwhile, back in Nerima an air of loss hung heavy throughout the ward. However, for two households in particular, it was truly a scene of opposites. At the Saotome residence, it was very strange as an attractive looking woman with loose dark-red hair was dancing about atop a reasonably new panda skin rug as she sung of the honor and glory that was her child for the honor that had been gifted to him. In her hands, she held a journal, which not only told her the truth of what had happened during her child's life away from her at the hands and occasional paw of her _late_ husband and her child's rivals.

In addition telling of the gift of Lorena and the promise that they would one day see each other again soon. She was no longer dressed in the Kimonos she for so long had favored while waiting for her wayward _ex_-husband, instead she was attired in a pair of tight fitting blue jeans with a black t-shirt saying _'Red Hot Momma!'_ For she was Nodoka Saotome, mother to the greatest living legend. However, over at the Tendo dojo all was not well. Soun was in mourning while mimicking the waking dead, he did not eat, did not sleep and he even refused to get out of bed unless it was to use the lavatory. Truly the death of his long time friend and his son had ripped the life from him.

Nabiki had been hit just as hard, but when she saw herself in the mirror she knew it was time for one last death. It would be a small death but to her it would feel just as big, it was now time for the mask of the feared mercenary known as the _Ice-Queen of Furinkan High_ to die. Moreover, she would take a page from the book of Ranma and help those who needed it.

Akane, she was no longer living at home, the day after she had been told that Ranma had died it was then deemed necessary that she be placed under suicide watch after she had finally tasted her own cooking. It was not until a few days later that some young men, dressed in their clean white coats had came and taken her away so she could receive the help she truly needed. As for Kasumi, well it was hard to tell really; on the one hand she wanted to tell her family of what had happened but the letter from Ranma that she had found in her bedroom prevented that. Taking the letter out of her apron she unfolded it to read what the young man she called little brother had written.

_Dear Kas-chan,_

_By the time you read this letter I will no longer be in Nerima, the news of my demise was greatly exaggerated and for that I am truly sorry. Only you and two others shall know the truth, as the death certificates and ashes are complete fakes. The only things I can promise you are these; one, Dr. Tofu does love you so expect to be asked out sometime soon. Two, now this must remain a secret from everyone else, I will be coming back! I only ask one thing; please get Akane some help, as you know she never did recover from the loss of your mother add onto that the stress inflicted by Kuno._

_Also if you are wondering as to how I was able to use the words I did in this well I sort of used a dictionary. Take care Kasumi and please keep that __**Pig**__ away from Akane._

_Signed,_

_Ranma Saotome_

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"…and that's my life in a nutshell." Morgan found herself at a loss for words as she tried, failed and tried again to absorb what she had just been told about the life this kid has led. Placing a hand her to her forehead she sighed while attempting to ward off a headache "Okay let's go over this slowly, one last time and only the highlights." She moaned. "Alright!" Ranma chirped as she drank some apple juice. "Your name is Ranma; you were born male and spent most of your life away from your mother." "Correct, while being trained by my father in the martial arts the whole time to the exclusion of everything else."

"Right, which along the way at six you were subjected to that abysmal training called _Neko-ken_." "Which, for a long time had left me partially insane and afraid of any and all cats." "Yeah," sighed Morgan "and when you were sixteen you and this Genma came across a place called…" "Jusenkyo." "Thanks, he takes you to a place that's filled with not only chaos but also an insanely large amount of death magic that had been combined with amalgamation spell gone awry. Resulting in over a hundred different springs, which can not only alter ones body on the genetic level but can actually overwrite someone's mind thereby turning them into someone or some_thing_ else!"

"Heh… yeah, and that was just the first sixteen years of my life! The rest of which contains fights upon fights with inept martial arts styles, and getting so bogged down with girls seeking to marry me or kill me all because I was supposedly sold to them for a meager helping of food!" "And yet here you are, eight years old, female and now trapped in a sub-dimensional prison with a woman portrayed throughout history as being both twisted and evil. That's just peachy!"

"Hey it could be worse." "Oh yeah how?" "You could be trapped with Ryoga!" and at that vary moment Ranma hears the all too familiar words _**"**__**Where the Hell am I now!"**_"Well speak of the devil and he arrives." "Forget it he's already gone and he won't be back for at least another hundred years or so." Suddenly both Morgan and Ranma give off a jaw-cracking yawn. Morgan looked over at Ranma and smiled "Come on, I'll show you where you can put your stuff then its time for bed. It'll be a long day starting tomorrow as we start on getting you familiar with that magic of yours." "Say Morgan, if this place is indeed a prison than how come he's not trapped here like us?"

That caused Morgan to suffer massive face fault in mid stride, quickly righting herself into a sitting position Morgan proceeded to pontificate about the perils of how much of an ouchy her pour nose had suffered. After awhile and a few well-developed sweat drops on the back of Ranma's head, Morgan stood back up and calmly told Ranma that it was probably due to some botched up trans-location spell or something similar. With that Ranma would quickly find herself in a bit of a constant cycle, learning about the history of dragons from Lorena while she slept and various magical spells, cantrips and curses, along with a bit of proper schooling from Morgan when she was awake.


End file.
